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{{Short description|Venetian merchant, explorer, and writer (1254–1324)}}
{{About|the trader and explorer}}
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{{Infobox person
| name               = Marco Polo
| image              = Marco Polo - costume tartare.jpg
| caption            = An 18th-century portrait of Marco Polo
| alt                = Marco Polo with a fur cap and red robes, holding a bow and a sword in its sheath
| birth_date         = 1254
| birth_place        = [[Venice]], [[Republic of Venice]]
| death_date         = 8 January 1324
| death_place        = Venice, Republic of Venice
| body_discovered    = 
| death_cause        = 
| resting_place      = [[San Lorenzo, Venice|Church of San Lorenzo]]
| resting_place_coordinates = {{Coord|45.4373|12.3455|type:landmark_region:IT|display=inline}}
| known_for          = ''[[The Travels of Marco Polo]]''
| occupation         = {{hlist|Merchant|explorer|writer}}
| spouse             = {{marriage|[[Donata Badoer]]|1300}}
| children           = 4, including [[Fantina Polo|Fantina]]
| father             = [[Niccolò Polo]]
}}
'''Marco Polo''' ({{IPAc-en|audio=en-us-marco polo.ogg|ˈ|m|ɑr|k|oʊ|_|ˈ|p|oʊ|l|oʊ}}; {{IPA|vec|ˈmaɾko ˈpolo|lang}}; {{IPA|it|ˈmarko ˈpɔːlo|lang|MarcoPolo.flac}}; {{c.|1254}}{{spaced ndash}} 8 January 1324){{sfn|Bergreen|2007|pp=340–42}} was a [[Republic of Venice|Venetian]] merchant, explorer, and writer who travelled through Asia along the [[Silk Road]] between 1271 and 1295.<ref>Stephen Feinstein; (2009) ''Marco Polo: Amazing Adventures in China (Great Explorers of the World)'' p. 23–24; Enslow Pub Inc, {{ISBN|1-59845-103-0}}</ref><ref>John H. Stubbs, Robert G. Thomson; ''Architectural Conservation in Asia: National Experiences and Practice'' p. 30; Routledge, {{ISBN|1-138-92610-8}}</ref> His travels are recorded in ''[[The Travels of Marco Polo]]'' (also known as ''Book of the Marvels of the World '' and ''Il Milione'', {{c.|1300}}), a book that described the then-mysterious culture and inner workings of the Eastern world, including the wealth and great size of the [[Mongol Empire]] and China under the [[Yuan dynasty]], giving Europeans their first comprehensive look into China, Persia, India, Japan, and other Asian societies.<ref>{{cite news|title=Marco Polo, Il Milione|date=1965|language=it|newspaper=[[De Agostini|Istituto Geografico DeAgostini]]|last=Benedetto|first=Luigi Foscolo}}</ref>

Born in [[Venice]], Marco learned the mercantile trade from his father and his uncle, [[Niccolò and Maffeo Polo|Niccolò and Maffeo]], who travelled through Asia and met [[Kublai Khan]]. In 1269, they returned to Venice to meet Marco for the first time. The three of them embarked on an epic journey to Asia, exploring many places along the Silk Road until they reached "[[Cathay]]". They were received by the royal court of Kublai Khan, who was impressed by Marco's intelligence and humility. Marco was appointed to serve as Kublai's foreign emissary, and he was sent on many [[diplomatic mission]]s throughout the empire and Southeast Asia, visiting present-day [[Myanmar]], [[India]], [[Indonesia]], [[Sri Lanka]], and [[Vietnam]].<ref name=Rongguang>{{cite book |title= A History Of Food Culture In China |last1= Zhao|first1= Rongguang|last2= Wang|first2= Gangliu|last3= Wang|first3= Aimee Yiran |page=94}}</ref><ref name=Kleinhenz>{{cite book |title= Routledge Revivals: Medieval Italy (2004): An Encyclopedia – Volume II, Volume 2 |last= Kleinhenz|first= Christopher|page=923 }}</ref> As part of this appointment, Marco also travelled extensively inside China, living in the emperor's lands for 17 years and seeing many things previously unknown to Europeans.<ref name=WorldAtlas>{{cite web |url=https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/marco-polo-great-explorers-of-the-world.html |title=Marco Polo |website=Worldatlas.com |access-date=24 August 2019 |archive-date=9 June 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200609141055/https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/marco-polo-great-explorers-of-the-world.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> 

Around 1291, the Polos offered to accompany the Mongol princess [[Kököchin]] to Persia; they arrived there around 1293. After leaving the princess, they travelled overland to [[Constantinople]] and then to Venice, returning home after 24 years.<ref name=WorldAtlas /> At this time, Venice was [[Venetian–Genoese Wars|at war with Genoa]]. Marco joined the war effort on behalf of Venice and was captured by the Genoans. While imprisoned, he dictated stories of his travels to [[Rustichello da Pisa]], a cellmate. He was released in 1299, became a wealthy merchant, married, and had three children. He died in 1324 and was buried in the church of [[San Lorenzo, Venice|San Lorenzo in Venice]].

Though he was not the first [[Europeans in Medieval China|European to reach China]], Marco Polo was the first to leave a detailed chronicle of his experience. His account provided the Europeans with a clear picture of the East's geography and ethnic customs, and it included the first Western record of porcelain,  gunpowder, paper money, and some Asian plants and exotic animals. His narrative inspired [[Christopher Columbus]]<ref name="Landström 1967 27">{{Harvnb|Landström|1967|p=27}}</ref> and many other travellers. There is substantial literature based on Polo's writings; he also influenced European [[cartography]], leading to the introduction of the [[Catalan Atlas]] and the [[Fra Mauro map]].<ref name=Glick>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=77y2AgAAQBAJ&pg=PA415 |title= Medieval Science, Technology, and Medicine: An Encyclopedia |author1=Thomas F. Glick |author2=Steven Livesey |author3=Faith Wallis |year=2014 |page=415 |publisher=Routledge|isbn= 9781135459321 }}</ref>
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== Life ==
[[File:Memorials to Marco Polo - Casa Polo - Memorial plaque.jpg|thumb|A commemorative plaque on the site of Casa Polo in Venice, part of the [[Teatro Malibran]] which was built upon Polo's house]]
[[File:VENEZIA MILION.JPG|thumb|upright=.7|{{lang|it|Corte Seconda del Milion}}, Venice, next to Polo's house, is named after the nickname of Polo, {{lang|it|Il Milione}}]]

=== Family origin ===
Marco Polo was born around 1254 in [[Venice]],<ref name="PeklicPolo"/><ref name="Bergreen25">{{Harvnb|Bergreen|2007|p=25}} ([https://books.google.com/books?id=x-PZdFbG6dEC&pg=PA24 online copy pp. 24–25])</ref><ref name="Tre">{{cite encyclopedia |title=Pòlo, Marco |encyclopedia=[[Treccani]] |publisher=Istituto Treccani |quote=Viaggiatore veneziano (Venezia o Curzola 1254 - Venezia 1324) |language=it |url=https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/marco-polo |access-date=17 October 2023 |archive-date=28 August 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230828144120/https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/marco-polo |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="GG15">{{cite encyclopedia |title=Polo, Marco |encyclopedia=[[Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani]] |date=2015 |last=Gullino |first=Giuseppe |publisher=Istituto Treccani |volume=84 |language=it |url=https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/marco-polo_(Dizionario-Biografico) |quote=Nacque a Venezia nel 1254. Suo padre, Nicolò di Andrea, del quale non si conosce la data di nascita, esercitò per lungo tempo la mercatura a Costantinopoli, assieme al fratello Matteo. Risiedeva, in Venezia, probabilmente nella contrada di San Severo; non è noto il nome della moglie. |access-date=17 October 2023 |archive-date=13 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240113045657/https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/marco-polo_(Dizionario-Biografico)/ |url-status=live }}</ref> but the exact date and place of birth are archivally unknown.{{sfn|Wood|1998|pp=111–113}}<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Marco-Polo|title=Marco Polo &#124; Biography, Travels, & Influence|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|date=4 January 2024|access-date=26 November 2019|archive-date=19 November 2015|archive-url=https://archive.today/20151119023218/http://www.britannica.com/biography/Marco-Polo|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="HKJ">{{Citation|last=Hinds|first=Kathryn|title=Venice and Its Merchant Empire|year=2002|place=New York|publisher=Benchmark Books}}</ref>{{sfn|Puljiz-Šostik|2015|pp=5–6}}<ref name="PeklicPolo">{{cite journal |title=Marko Polo – Svjetski Putnik |trans-title=Marco Polo – The World Traveler |url=http://hrcak.srce.hr/index.php?show=clanak&id_clanak_jezik=102234 |first=Ivan |last=Peklić |journal=Metodički Ogledi |volume=17 |issue=1–2 |year=2011 |page=50 |language=hr |archive-date=7 November 2021 |access-date=1 April 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211107193115/https://hrcak.srce.hr/index.php?show=clanak&id_clanak_jezik=102234 |url-status=live }}</ref>  The ''[[Travels of Marco Polo]]'' contains some basic information concerning Marco Polo's Venetian family and his birth in Venice; the book states that Marco's father, the travelling merchant [[Niccolò Polo]], returned to visit his family in his hometown of Venice around 1269 and there found out that his wife, whom he had left pregnant, had died and left a 15-year-old son named Marco.<ref>Benedetto, L. F. (2014). The Travels of Marco Polo. Taylor & Francis. p. 8.</ref>

In contrast to the general consensus, there are theories suggesting that Marco Polo's birthplace was the island of [[Korčula]]<ref name="EAM98">{{cite encyclopedia |title=Polo, Marco |encyclopedia=Enciclopedia dell' Arte Medievale |date=1998 |last=Chiappori |first=M.G. |publisher=Istituto Treccani |quote=nato nella città lagunare o a Curzola, in Dalmazia, nel 1254 e morto a Venezia nel 1324 |language=it |url=https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/marco-polo_%28Enciclopedia-dell%27-Arte-Medievale%29/ |access-date=17 October 2023 |archive-date=31 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230131145837/https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/marco-polo_%28Enciclopedia-dell%27-Arte-Medievale%29/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="DS11">{{cite encyclopedia |title=Polo, Marco |encyclopedia=Dizionario di Storia |date=2011 |publisher=Istituto Treccani |quote=Venezia o Curzola 1254-Venezia 1324 |language=it |url=https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/marco-polo_%28Dizionario-di-Storia%29/ |access-date=17 October 2023 |archive-date=13 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230413181728/https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/marco-polo_(Dizionario-di-Storia)/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="PeklicPolo"/><ref name="Tre"/>{{sfn|Bergreen|2007|p=24}}{{sfn|Brook|2010|p=24}} or [[Constantinople]]<ref name="PeklicPolo"/>{{sfn|Puljiz-Šostik|2015|p=14}} but such hypotheses failed to gain acceptance among most scholars and have been countered by other studies.{{sfn|Puljiz-Šostik|2015|p=5}}<ref>{{cite journal|title=The curious case of Marco Polo from Korčula: An example of invented tradition|journal= Journal of Marine and Island Cultures|volume=2|pages=20–28|doi= 10.1016/j.imic.2013.05.001|year=2013|last1=Orlić|first1=Olga|issue= 1|doi-access=free|bibcode= 2013JMICu...2...20O}}</ref>

=== Nickname {{lang|it|Milione}} ===
He was nicknamed {{lang|it|Milione}} during his lifetime (which in Italian literally means 'Million'). The Italian title of his book was ''Il Libro di Marco Polo soprannominato Milione'', which means "The Book of Marco Polo, nicknamed 'Milione'". According to the 15th-century humanist [[Giovanni Battista Ramusio]], his fellow citizens awarded him this nickname when he came back to Venice because he kept on saying that Kublai Khan's wealth was counted in millions. More precisely, he was nicknamed {{lang|it|Messer Marco Milioni}} (Mr Marco Millions).<ref>''[https://books.google.com/books?id=tBUnTVojIcUC Giovan Battista Ramusion, Delle navigationi et viaggi Vol. II]'', Giunti, Venezia, 1574.</ref>

However, since also his father Niccolò was nicknamed {{lang|it|Milione}},<ref>Marco Polo, Il Milione, [[De Agostini|Istituto Geografico DeAgostini]], 1965, p.22</ref> 19th-century philologist Luigi Foscolo Benedetto was persuaded that {{lang|it|Milione}} was a shortened version of {{lang|it|Emilione}}, and that this nickname was used to distinguish Niccolò's and Marco's branch from other Polo families.<ref>[[Luigi Foscolo Benedetto|Benedetto, L. F]].: Marco Polo, il Milione, Firenze, 1928 in Marco Polo, Il Milione, [[De Agostini|Istituto Geografico DeAgostini]], 1965, p.22</ref><ref name="allulli">{{lang|it|... volendosi ravvisare nella parola "Milione" la forma ridotta di un diminutivo arcaico "Emilione" che pare sia servito a meglio identificare il nostro Marco distinguendolo per tal modo da tutti i numerosi Marchi della sua famiglia.}} ([[Ranieri Allulli]], ''MARCO POLO E IL LIBRO DELLE MERAVIGLIE – Dialogo in tre tempi del giornalista Qualunquelli Junior e dell'astrologo Barbaverde'', Milano, Mondadori, 1954, p.26)</ref>

=== Early life and Asian travel ===
{{See also|Niccolò and Maffeo Polo|Europeans in Medieval China}}

[[File:Marco Polo Mosaic from Palazzo Tursi.jpg|thumb|upright|A [[mosaic]] of Marco Polo displayed in the Palazzo Doria-Tursi, [[Genoa]], Italy]]
His father, [[Niccolò and Maffeo Polo|Niccolò Polo]], a merchant, traded with the [[Near East]], becoming wealthy and achieving great prestige.<ref name="Britannica571"/><ref name="WB">{{Harvnb|Parker|2004|pp=648–49}}</ref> Niccolò and his brother Maffeo set off on a trading voyage before Marco's birth.<ref name="WB"/><ref name="Italiani nel sistema solare">[https://books.google.com/books?id=TiTXdptskSsC&dq=marco+polo+15+settembre+1254&pg=PA67 Italiani nel sistema solare] di Michele T. Mazzucato</ref> In 1260,<ref>According to Marco Polo's biographer Alvise Zorzi, Niccolò and Maffeo had decided to leave Constantinople after the fall of the [[Latin Empire]] of Constantinople, therefore, after 1261. {{Cite book |title=La Repubblica del Leone. Storia di Venezia |trans-title=The Lion's Republic. History of Venice |last=Zorzi |first=Alvise |publisher=[[Bompiani]] |location=Milan |date=2001 |page=156 |isbn=88-452-9136-7 |language=it}}</ref> Niccolò and Maffeo, while residing in Constantinople, then the capital of the [[Latin Empire]], foresaw a political change; they liquidated their assets into jewels and moved away.<ref name="Britannica571">{{Harvnb|Britannica|2002|p=571}}</ref> According to ''The Travels of Marco Polo'', they passed through much of Asia, and met with [[Kublai Khan]], a Mongol ruler and founder of the [[Yuan dynasty]].{{sfn |Yule |Cordier |1993 |loc=chapter 1–9 }}

Almost nothing is known about the childhood of Marco Polo until he was fifteen years old, except that he probably spent part of his childhood in Venice.{{sfn|Bergreen|2007|p=36}}{{sfn|Puljiz-Šostik|2015|p=24}}<ref name="Rugoff">{{cite book |title=Marco Polo |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=if-BBgAAQBAJ |first=Milton |last=Rugoff |publisher=New Word City |year=2015 |isbn=978-1-61230-838-8}}</ref> Meanwhile, Marco Polo's mother died, and an aunt and uncle raised him.<ref name="WB"/> He received a good education, learning mercantile subjects including foreign currency, appraising, and the handling of cargo ships;<ref name="WB"/> he learned little or no [[Latin]].<ref name="Britannica571"/> His father later married Floradise Polo (née Trevisan).<ref name="Poljica">{{cite journal |title=Putopisac Marko Polo |trans-title=Travel writer Marco Polo |url=http://www.korcula.net/mpolo/mpolo_pav_text.htm |first=Anđelko |last=Pavešković |journal=Godišnjak Poljičkog Dekanata "Poljica" |issue=23 |year=1998 |pages=38–66 |archive-date=3 March 2016 |access-date=22 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303231059/http://www.korcula.net/mpolo/mpolo_pav_text.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 1269, Niccolò and Maffeo returned to their families in Venice, meeting young Marco for the first time.{{sfn|Bergreen|2007|p=36}} In 1271, during the rule of [[Doge (title)|Doge]] [[Lorenzo Tiepolo]], Marco Polo (at seventeen years of age), his father, and his uncle set off for Asia on the series of adventures that Marco later documented in his book.{{sfn|Bergreen|2007|p=37}}

[[File:Caravane Marco Polo.jpg|thumb|A close-up of the [[Catalan Atlas]] depicting Marco Polo travelling to the East during the ''[[Pax Mongolica]]'']]
They sailed to [[Acre, Israel|Acre]] and later rode on their camels to the Persian port [[Hormuz, Iran|Hormuz]]. During the first stages of the journey, they stayed for a few months in Acre and were able to speak with Archdeacon [[Pope Gregory X|Tedaldo Visconti of Piacenza]]. The Polo family, on that occasion, had expressed their regret at the long lack of a pope, because on their previous trip to China they had received a letter from Kublai Khan to the Pope, and had thus had to leave for China disappointed.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.treccani.it//enciclopedia/beato-gregorio-x_(Enciclopedia-dei-Papi)|title=GREGORIO X, beato in "Enciclopedia dei Papi"|website=treccani.it|access-date=13 July 2020|archive-date=8 March 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140308133750/http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/beato-gregorio-x_%28Enciclopedia-dei-Papi%29/|url-status=live}}</ref>

During the trip, they received news that after 33 months of vacation, the [[Conclave]] had elected the new Pope and that he was exactly the archdeacon of Acre. The three of them hurried to return to the Holy Land, where the new Pope entrusted them with letters for the "Great Khan", inviting him to send his emissaries to Rome. To give more weight to this mission, he sent with the Polos, as his legates, two [[Dominican Order|Dominican]] fathers, Guglielmo of Tripoli and Nicola of Piacenza.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.treccani.it//enciclopedia/beato-gregorio-x_(Enciclopedia-dei-Papi)|title=GREGORIO X, beato in "Enciclopedia dei Papi"|website=treccani.it|access-date=13 July 2020|archive-date=8 March 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140308133750/http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/beato-gregorio-x_%28Enciclopedia-dei-Papi%29/|url-status=live}}</ref>

They continued overland until they arrived at [[Kublai Khan]]'s palace in [[Shangdu]], China, then known as [[Cathay]]. By this time, Marco was 21 years old. Impressed by Marco's intelligence and humility, Kublai appointed him to serve as his foreign emissary to [[Delhi Sultanate|India]] and [[History of Myanmar#Bagan dynasty (849–1297)|Myanmar]]. He was sent on many diplomatic missions throughout his empire and in Southeast Asia, such as in present-day Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Vietnam,<ref name=Rongguang/><ref name=Kleinhenz/> and entertained the Khan with stories and observations about the lands he saw. As part of this appointment, Marco travelled extensively inside China, living in the emperor's lands for 17 years.<ref name=WorldAtlas/>

Kublai initially refused several times to let the Polos return to Europe, as he appreciated their company and they became useful to him. Around 1291, he granted permission, entrusting the Polos with his last duty: accompany the Mongol princess [[Kököchin]], who was to become the consort of [[Arghun Khan]], in Persia.<ref name="Igor"/><ref name="ShaanxiChronicles">{{cite web | title=二、欧洲 | trans-title=Volume 1 - Foreign affairs, Chapter 4 - Before 1840, 4.2 Europe | website=Office of Shaanxi Local Chronicles | url=http://dfz.shaanxi.gov.cn/sqzlk/xbsxsz/szdyl/wsz/201107/t20110715_701024.html | quote=在中国住过十七年之久的马可·波罗一行，久游思乡。恰巧波斯汗阿鲁浑派使臣进谒忽必烈，告以妃子死去，请求赐婚。忽必烈命以阔阔真公主下嫁阿鲁浑汗。马可·波罗奉使陪送公主去波斯，从泉州出发经陆上道路，于1294或1295年左右回到威尼斯故乡。 | access-date=13 Oct 2024 | archive-date=8 December 2024 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241208093737/http://dfz.shaanxi.gov.cn/sqzlk/xbsxsz/szdyl/wsz/201107/t20110715_701024.html | url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Zhang">{{cite web | title=馬可孛羅是誰？ | trans-title=Who is Marco Polo? | last=Zhang | first=Jinxian | website=中國文化研究院 | date=18 September 2020 | url=https://chiculture.org.hk/en/node/266 | access-date=13 October 2024 | quote=馬可孛羅三人居留中國十七年，多次請求回國，沒有獲准。後來伊兒汗阿魯渾的王妃病逝，忽必烈便遣派闊闊真公主下嫁阿魯渾。阿魯渾的使者 … 請求大汗派他們一同護送闊闊真。忽必烈答應這一要求，同時命馬可孛羅等回歐洲，轉送他致羅馬教皇和英、法等國國王的信件。1291年，馬可孛羅等人乘船從泉州啟程，經爪哇、印度洋，到達波斯灣沿岸的伊兒汗國。當時阿魯渾已死，闊闊真按照蒙古風俗嫁給阿魯渾之子合贊。馬可孛羅等人 … 1295年回到故鄉威尼斯。 | archive-date=8 December 2024 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241208084036/https://chiculture.org.hk/en/node/266 | url-status=live }}</ref> When the Polos arrived to Persia, they learned that Arghun Khan died, and Kököchin eventually became a wife of his son [[Ghazan]]. After leaving the princess, the Polos travelled overland to Constantinople. They later decided to return to their home.

They returned to Venice in 1295, after 24 years, with many riches and treasures. They had travelled almost {{convert|15000|mi|-3}}.<ref name="WB"/>

=== Genoese captivity and later life ===
Marco Polo returned to Venice in 1295 with his fortune converted into [[gemstone]]s. At this time, Venice was at war with the [[Republic of Genoa]].{{sfn |Nicol |1992 |p=219 }} Polo armed a galley equipped with a [[trebuchet]]<ref name="pierriere">Yule, ''The Travels of Marco Polo'', London, 1870: reprinted by Dover, New York, 1983.</ref> to join the war. He was probably caught by Genoans in a skirmish in 1296, off the [[Anatolia]]n coast between [[Adana]] and the [[Gulf of Alexandretta]]<ref>According to fr. Jacopo d'Aqui'', Chronica mundi libri imaginis''</ref> (and not during the [[battle of Curzola]] (September 1298), off the Dalmatian coast,{{sfn|Puljiz-Šostik|2015|pp=28–36}} a claim which is due to a later tradition (16th century) recorded by [[Giovanni Battista Ramusio]]<ref>Polo, Marco; Latham, Ronald (translator) (1958). ''The Travels of Marco Polo'', p. 16. New York: Penguin Books. {{ISBN|0-14-044057-7}}.</ref>{{sfn|Puljiz-Šostik|2015|pp=8, 12, 28–36}}).

He spent several months of his imprisonment dictating a detailed account of his travels to a fellow inmate, [[Rustichello da Pisa]],<ref name="WB" /> who incorporated tales of his own as well as other collected anecdotes and current affairs from China. The book soon spread throughout Europe in [[manuscript]] form, and became known as ''[[The Travels of Marco Polo]]'' ([[Italian language|Italian]] title: '''''Il Milione''''', lit. "The Million", deriving from Polo's nickname "Milione". Original title in [[Franco-Italian]] : ''Livres des Merveilles du Monde''). It depicts the Polos' journeys throughout Asia, giving Europeans their first comprehensive look into the inner workings of the [[Far East]], including China, India, and [[Kamakura period|Japan]].{{sfn |Bram |Phillips |Dickey |1983 }}

Polo was finally released from captivity in August 1299,<ref name="WB" /> and returned home to Venice, where his father and uncle in the meantime had purchased a large [[Palace#Italy|palazzo]] in the zone named ''contrada San Giovanni Crisostomo'' (Corte del Milion).{{sfn|Bergreen|2007|p=332}} For such a venture, the Polo family probably invested profits from trading, and even many gemstones they brought from the East.{{sfn|Bergreen|2007|p=332}} The company continued its activities and Marco soon became a wealthy merchant. Marco and his uncle Maffeo financed other expeditions, but likely never left Venetian provinces, nor returned to the [[Silk Road]] and Asia.{{sfn|Bergreen|2007|p=333}} Sometime before 1300, his father Niccolò died.{{sfn|Bergreen|2007|p=333}} In 1300, he married Donata Badoèr, the daughter of Vitale Badoèr, a merchant.{{sfn|Bergreen|2007|pp=332–33}} They had three daughters, [[Fantina Polo|Fantina]] (married Marco Bragadin), Bellela (married Bertuccio Querini), and Moreta.{{sfn|Bergreen|2007|p=333, 338}}<ref>{{Harvnb|Power|2007|p=87}}</ref> In 2022, it was found that Polo first had a daughter named Agnese (b. 1295/1299 - d. 1319) from a partnership or marriage which ended before 1300.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.unive.it/pag/16584/?tx_news_pi1&#91;news&#93;=11938&tx_news_pi1&#91;controller&#93;=News&tx_news_pi1&#91;action&#93;=detail|title=Agnese, the unknown daughter of Marco Polo|language=it|website=[[Ca' Foscari University of Venice]]|date=7 February 2022|access-date=17 October 2023|archive-date=18 October 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231018051454/https://www.unive.it/pag/16584/?tx_news_pi1&#91;news&#93;=11938&tx_news_pi1&#91;controller&#93;=News&tx_news_pi1&#91;action&#93;=detail|url-status=live}}</ref>

[[Pietro d'Abano]], a philosopher, doctor and astrologer based in [[Padua]], reports having spoken with Marco Polo about what he had observed in the vault of the sky during his travels. Marco told him that during his return trip to the [[South China Sea]], he had spotted what he describes in a drawing as a star "shaped like a sack" (in [[Latin]]: ''ut sacco'') with a big tail (''magna habens caudam''); most likely a [[comet]]. Astronomers agree that there were no comets sighted in Europe at the end of the 13th century, but there are records about a comet sighted in China and Indonesia in 1293.<ref name="rhinoresourcecenter.com">{{Cite web|url=http://www.rhinoresourcecenter.com/pdf_files/135/1353458473.pdf|title=Jensen, Jørgen. "The World's most diligent observer." Asiatische Studien 51.3 (1997): 719–728.|accessdate=1 June 2024|archive-date=19 December 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201219131338/http://www.rhinoresourcecenter.com/pdf_files/135/1353458473.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> This circumstance does not appear in [[The Travels of Marco Polo|Polo's book of travels]]. Peter D'Abano kept the drawing in his volume ''Conciliator Differentiarum, quæ inter Philosophos et Medicos Versantur''. Marco Polo gave Pietro other astronomical observations he made in the [[Southern Hemisphere]], and also a description of the [[Sumatran rhinoceros]], which are collected in the ''Conciliator''.<ref name="rhinoresourcecenter.com" />

In 1305, he is mentioned in a Venetian document among local sea captains regarding the payment of taxes.<ref name="Poljica" /> His relation with a certain Marco Polo, who in 1300 was mentioned in relation to riots against the aristocratic government, and who escaped the death penalty, who was also mentioned in relation to riots from 1310 led by [[Bajamonte Tiepolo]] and Marco Querini, among whose rebels were Jacobello and Francesco Polo from another family branch, is unclear.<ref name="Poljica" /> Polo is clearly mentioned again after 1305 in Maffeo's testament from 1309 to 1310, in a 1319 document according to which he became owner of some estates of his deceased father, and in 1321, when he bought part of the family property of his wife Donata.<ref name="Poljica" />

=== Death ===
[[File:Chiesa di San Lorenzo.jpg|thumb|upright=.7|''[[San Lorenzo, Venice|San Lorenzo]]'' church in the [[sestiere]] of [[Castello, Venice|Castello]] ([[Venice]]), where Polo was buried. The photo shows the church as it is today, after the 1592 rebuilding.]]

In 1323, Polo was confined to bed due to illness.{{sfn|Bergreen|2007|p=339}} On 8 January 1324, despite physicians' efforts to treat him, Polo was on his deathbed.{{sfn|Bergreen|2007|p=340}} To write and certify the will, his family requested Giovanni Giustiniani, a priest of San Procolo. His wife, Donata, and his three daughters were appointed by him as [[Executor|co-executrices]].{{sfn|Bergreen|2007|p=340}} The church was entitled by law to a portion of his estate; he approved of this and ordered that a further sum be paid to the convent of [[San Lorenzo, Venice|San Lorenzo]], the place where he wished to be buried.{{sfn|Bergreen|2007|p=340}} He also set free Peter, a [[Tatars|Tartar]] [[slave|servant]], who may have accompanied him from Asia,<ref>{{Harvnb|Britannica|2002|p=573}}</ref> and to whom Polo bequeathed 100 lire of Venetian denari.{{sfn|Bergreen|2007|p=341}}

He divided up the rest of his assets, including several properties, among individuals, religious institutions, and every guild and fraternity to which he belonged.{{sfn|Bergreen|2007|p=340}} He also wrote off multiple debts, including 300&nbsp;lire that his sister-in-law owed him, and others for the convent of [[San Giovanni Grisostomo, Venice|San Giovanni]], [[Church of San Polo, Venice|San Paolo of the Order of Preachers]], and a cleric named [[Friar]] Benvenuto.{{sfn|Bergreen|2007|p=340}} He ordered 220&nbsp;[[Solidus (coin)|soldi]] be paid to Giovanni Giustiniani for his work as a notary and his prayers.{{sfn|Bergreen|2007|pp=340–41}}

The will was not signed by Polo, but it was validated by the then-relevant "[[signum manus]]" rule, by which the testator had only to touch the document to make it legally valid.{{sfn|Bergreen|2007|p=341}}<ref name="Marciana">Biblioteca Marciana, the institute that holds Polo's original copy of his testament. [http://marciana.venezia.sbn.it/admin/filemanager/file/UserFiles/File/testamento-polo.txt Venezia.sbn.it] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101206135126/http://marciana.venezia.sbn.it/admin/filemanager/file/UserFiles/File/testamento-polo.txt |date=6 December 2010 }}</ref> Due to the Venetian law stating that the day ends at sunset, the exact date of Marco Polo's death cannot be determined, but according to some scholars it was between the sunsets of 8 and 9 January 1324.{{sfn|Bergreen|2007|p=342}} [[Biblioteca Marciana]], which holds the original copy of his testament, dates the testament on 9 January 1324, and it gives the date of his death at some time in June 1324.<ref name="Marciana" />

== ''The Travels of Marco Polo'' ==
{{Main|The Travels of Marco Polo}}
{{further|Franco-Mongol alliance|Byzantine-Mongol alliance}}

{{multiple image
|align=right|direction=vertical|width=230
|image1=Route of Marco Polo.png
|caption1=Map of Marco Polo's travels
|image2=Marco Polo traveling.JPG
|caption2=A [[Miniature (illuminated manuscript)|miniature]] from ''Il Milione''
}}
An authoritative version of Marco Polo's book does not and cannot exist, for the early manuscripts differ significantly, and the reconstruction of the original text is a matter of [[textual criticism]]. A total of about 150 copies in various languages are known to exist. Before the availability of [[printing press]], errors were frequently made during copying and translating, so there are many differences between the various copies.<ref>{{cite web|first=Patricia B.|last= Kellogg |title=Did you Know? |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080205054538/http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0105/feature1/index.html | url=http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0105/feature1/index.html |year=2001 |website=National Geographic |archive-date=5 February 2008}}</ref>{{sfn |Edwards |2005 |p=1 }}

Polo related his memoirs orally to [[Rustichello da Pisa]] while both were prisoners of the [[Genova Republic]]. Rustichello wrote ''[[The Travels of Marco Polo|Devisement du Monde]]'' in [[Franco-Venetian]].<ref name="Nota">Maria Bellonci, "Nota introduttiva", Il Milione di Marco Polo, Milano, Oscar Mondadori, 2003, p. XI</ref> The idea probably was to create a [[Pratica della mercatura|handbook for merchants]], essentially a text on weights, measures and distances.<ref>Larner John, Marco Polo and the discovery of the world, Yale University Press, 1999, {{ISBN|0-300-07971-0}} pp. 68–87.</ref>

The oldest surviving manuscript is in [[Old French]] heavily flavoured with Italian;<ref>[[Bibliothèque Nationale]] MS. français 1116. For details, see, A. C. Moule and Paul Pelliot, ''Marco Polo:  The Description of the World'' (London, 1938), p.41.</ref> According to the Italian scholar Luigi Foscolo Benedetto, this "F" text is the basic original text, which he corrected by comparing it with the somewhat more detailed Italian of Giovanni Battista Ramusio, together with a Latin manuscript in the [[Biblioteca Ambrosiana]].  Other early important sources are "R" (Ramusio's Italian translation first printed in 1559), and "Z" (a 15th-century Latin manuscript kept at Toledo, Spain). Another Old French Polo manuscript, dating to around 1350, is held by the National Library of Sweden.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Polo |first=Marco |title=The Travels of Marco Polo – World Digital Library |access-date=25 November 2014 |date=1350 |language=fro |url=http://www.wdl.org/en/item/14300/ |archive-date=17 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211117085457/https://www.wdl.org/en/item/14300/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

One of the early manuscripts {{lang |la |Iter Marci Pauli Veneti}} was a translation into Latin made by the [[Dominican Order|Dominican brother]] {{ill|Francesco Pipino|it}} in 1302, just a few years after Marco's return to Venice. Since Latin was then the most widespread and authoritative language of culture, it is suggested that Rustichello's text was translated into Latin for a precise will of the [[Dominican Order]], and this helped to promote the book on a European scale.<ref name="unive.it">{{Cite web|url=http://www.unive.it/pag/14024/?tx_news_pi1%5Bnews%5D=8198&cHash=610336475bb16a7a79dfc4295d82d25f|title=Un nuovo tassello della vita di Marco Polo: inedito ritrovato all'Archivio|trans-title=A new piece of Marco Polo's life: unpublished text found in the Archive|language=it|website=[[Ca' Foscari University of Venice]]|date=18 November 2019|access-date=13 July 2020|archive-date=2 March 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220302033037/https://www.unive.it/pag/14024/?tx_news_pi1%5Bnews%5D=8198&cHash=610336475bb16a7a79dfc4295d82d25f|url-status=live}}</ref>

The first English translation is the Elizabethan version by [[John Frampton]] published in 1579, ''The most noble and famous travels of Marco Polo'', based on Santaella's [[Old Spanish language|Castilian]] translation of 1503 (the first version in that language).<ref>{{cite web |url=https://archive.org/stream/mostnoblefamoust00polo/mostnoblefamoust00polo_djvu.txt |title=The most noble and famous travels of Marco Polo, together with the travels of Nicoláo de' Conti |website=archive.org |translator=John Frampton |year=1937 |edition=Second}}</ref>

The published editions of Polo's book rely on single manuscripts, blend multiple versions together, or add notes to clarify, for example in the English translation by [[Henry Yule]]. The 1938 English translation by {{thinspace|A.|C.}} Moule and [[Paul Pelliot]] is based on a Latin manuscript found in the library of the [[Cathedral of Toledo]] in 1932, and is 50% longer than other versions.<ref name="book">{{Harvnb|Bergreen|2007|pp=367–68}}</ref> The popular translation published by Penguin Books in 1958 by [[R. E. Latham|{{thinspace|R.|E.}} Latham]] works several texts together to make a readable whole.<ref>''The Travels of Marco Polo.'' (Harmondsworth, Middlesex; New York: Penguin Books, Penguin Classics, 1958; rpr. 1982 etc.) {{ISBN|0-14-044057-7}}.</ref> [[Sharon Kinoshita]]'s 2016 version takes as its source the Franco-Italian "F" manuscript,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kinoshita |first=Sharon |author-link=Sharon Kinoshita |title=Marco Polo, The Description of the World |publisher=Hackett Press |year=2016 |location=Indianapolis}}</ref> and invites readers to "focus on the text as the product of a larger European (and Eurasian) literary and commercial culture", rather than questions of veracity of the account.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Cruse |first=Markus |date=2016 |title=16.11.23, Kinoshita, trans., intro., The Description of the World / Marco Polo |url=https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/tmr/article/view/22953 |journal=The Medieval Review |language=en |issn=1096-746X}}</ref>

=== Narrative ===
[[File:Kublai Khan meeting Marco Polo.png|thumb|Polo meeting [[Kublai Khan]]]]
The book opens with a preface describing his father and uncle travelling to [[Bolghar]] where Prince [[Berke|Berke Khan]] lived. A year later, they went to [[Ukek]]{{sfn |Yule |Cordier |1993 |loc=chapter 2 }} and continued to [[Bukhara]]. There, an envoy from the [[Levant]] invited them to meet [[Kublai Khan]], who had never met Europeans.{{sfn |Yule |Cordier |1993 |loc=chapter 3 }} In 1266, they reached the seat of Kublai Khan at [[Khanbaliq|Dadu]], present-day [[Beijing]], China. Kublai received the brothers with hospitality and asked them many questions regarding the European legal and political system.{{sfn |Yule |Cordier |1993 |loc=chapter 5 }} He also inquired about the Pope and Church in Rome.{{sfn |Yule |Cordier |1993 |loc=chapter 6 }} After the brothers answered the questions he tasked them with delivering a letter to the Pope, requesting 100 Christians acquainted with the [[Liberal arts|Seven Arts]] (grammar, rhetoric, logic, geometry, arithmetic, music and astronomy). Kublai Khan requested also that an envoy bring him back [[Chrism|oil of the lamp in Jerusalem]].{{sfn |Yule |Cordier |1993 |loc=chapter 7 }} The long {{lang |la |[[sede vacante]]}} between the death of [[Pope Clement IV]] in 1268 and the election of his successor delayed the Polos in fulfilling Kublai's request. They followed the suggestion of Theobald Visconti, then [[papal legate]] for the realm of [[Mamluk Sultanate|Egypt]], and returned to Venice in 1269 or 1270 to await the nomination of the new Pope, which allowed Marco to see his father for the first time, at the age of fifteen or sixteen.{{sfn |Yule |Cordier |1993 |loc=chapter 9 }}
[[File:MarcoPoloStatueInHangzhou.JPG|thumb|upright=.6|left|Statue of Marco Polo in Hangzhou, China]]
In 1271, Niccolò, Maffeo and Marco Polo embarked on their voyage to fulfil Kublai's request. They sailed to [[Acre, Israel|Acre]], and then rode on camels to the Persian port of [[Hormuz, Iran|Hormuz]]. The Polos wanted to sail straight into China, but the ships there were not seaworthy, so they continued overland through the [[Silk Road]], until reaching Kublai's summer palace in [[Shangdu]], near present-day [[Zhangjiakou]]. In one instance during their trip, the Polos joined a caravan of travelling merchants whom they crossed paths with. Unfortunately, the party was soon attacked by [[bandits]], who used the cover of a sandstorm to ambush them. The Polos managed to fight and escape through a nearby town, but many members of the caravan were killed or enslaved.<ref>Zelenyj, Alexander, ''Marco Polo: Overland to China'', Crabtree Publishing Company (2005) Chapter: Along the Silk Road. {{ISBN|978-0-7787-2453-7}}</ref> Three and a half years after leaving Venice, when Marco was about 21 years old, the Polos were welcomed by Kublai into his palace.<ref name="WB" /> The exact date of their arrival is unknown, but scholars estimate it to be between 1271 and 1275.{{efn |[[Drogön Chögyal Phagpa]], a [[Tibet]]an monk and confidant of Kublai Khan, mentions in his diaries that in 1271 a foreign friend of Kublai Khan visits{{snd}}quite possibly one of the elder Polos or even Marco Polo himself, although, no name was given. If this is not the case, a more likely date for their arrival is 1275 (or 1274, according to the research of Japanese scholar Matsuo Otagi).{{sfn |Britannica |2002 |p=571 }} }} On reaching the Yuan court, the Polos presented the sacred oil from Jerusalem and the papal letters to their patron.<ref name="Britannica571" />

Marco knew four languages, and the family had accumulated a great deal of knowledge and experience that was useful to Kublai. It is possible that he became a government official;<ref name="WB" /> he wrote about many imperial visits to China's southern and eastern provinces, the far south and [[History of Myanmar#Bagan dynasty (849–1297)|Myanmar]].<ref>{{citation|url=http://web.soas.ac.uk/burma/pdf/Polo.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090219141709/http://web.soas.ac.uk/burma/pdf/Polo.pdf|archive-date=19 February 2009|title=The Travels of Marco Polo, The Venetian (1298)|access-date=21 February 2013|author=W. Marsden|editor=Thomas Wright|year=2004}}</ref> They were highly respected and sought after in the Mongolian court, and so Kublai Khan decided to decline the Polos' requests to leave China. They became worried about returning home safely, believing that if Kublai died, his enemies might turn against them because of their close involvement with the ruler. In 1292, Kublai's great-nephew, then ruler of [[Iran|Persia]], sent representatives to China in search of a potential wife, and they asked the Polos to accompany them, so they were permitted to return to Persia with the wedding party{{snd}}which left that same year from [[Quanzhou|Zaitun]] in southern China on a fleet of 14 [[Junk (ship)|junks]]. The party sailed to the port of [[Singapore]],{{sfn |Yule |Cordier |1993 |loc=volume 3, chapter 8 |p=281 }} travelled north to [[Sumatra]],{{sfn |Yule |Cordier |1993 |loc=volume 3, chapter 9 |p=286 }} and around the southern tip of India,{{sfn |Yule |Cordier |1993 |loc=volume 3, chapter 21 |p=373 }} eventually crossing the [[Arabian Sea]] to [[Ormus|Hormuz]]. The two-year voyage was perilous{{snd}}of the six hundred people (not including the crew) in the convoy only eighteen had survived (including all three Polos).<ref>Boyle, J.A. (1971). Marco Polo and his Description of the World. ''History Today''. Vol. 21, No. 11. [http://www.historytoday.com/MainArticle.aspx?m=33372&amid=30283909 Historyoftoday.com]</ref> The Polos left the wedding party after reaching Hormuz and travelled overland to the port of Trebizond on the [[Black Sea]], the present-day [[Trabzon]].<ref name="WB" />
[[File:Marco Polo, Il Milione, Chapter CXXIII and CXXIV Cropped.jpg|thumb|upright|A page from ''Il Milione'', from a manuscript believed to date between 1298 and 1299]]

=== Role of Rustichello ===
The British scholar [[Ronald Latham]] has pointed out that ''The Book of Marvels'' was a collaboration written in 1298–1299 between Polo and a professional writer of romances, Rustichello of Pisa.<ref name="Latham pages 7">Latham, Ronald "Introduction" pp. 7–20 from ''The Travels of Marco Polo'', London: Folio Society, 1958 p. 11.</ref> It is believed that Polo related his memoirs orally to [[Rustichello da Pisa]] while both were prisoners of the [[Genova Republic]]. Rustichello wrote ''[[Il Milione|Devisement du Monde]]'' in [[Franco-Italian|Franco-Venetian language]], which was a literary-only language widespread in northern Italy between the subalpine belt and the lower [[Po river|Po]] between the 13th and 15th centuries.<ref name="Nota" /><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.rialfri.eu/en/opere/frammento-del-milione-di-marco-polo|title=Frammento del "Milione" di Marco Polo – RIALFrI|website=www.rialfri.eu|access-date=2 November 2022|archive-date=2 November 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221102101437/https://www.rialfri.eu/en/opere/frammento-del-milione-di-marco-polo|url-status=live}}</ref>

Latham also argued that Rustichello may have glamorised Polo's accounts, and added fantastic and romantic elements that made the book a bestseller.<ref name="Latham pages 7" /> The Italian scholar Luigi Foscolo Benedetto had previously demonstrated that the book was written in the same "leisurely, conversational style"{{quote without source |date=May 2025}} that characterised Rustichello's other works, and that some passages in the book were taken verbatim or with minimal modifications from other writings by Rustichello. For example, the opening introduction in ''The Book of Marvels'' to "emperors and kings, dukes and marquises"{{quote without source |date=May 2025}} was lifted straight out of an [[Matter of Britain|Arthurian romance]] Rustichello had written several years earlier, and the account of the second meeting between Polo and Kublai Khan at the latter's court is almost the same as that of the arrival of [[Tristan]] at the court of [[King Arthur]] at [[Camelot]] in that same book.<ref>Latham, Ronald "Introduction" pp. 7–20 from ''The Travels of Marco Polo'', London: Folio Society, 1958 pp. 11–12.</ref> Latham believed that many elements of the book, such as legends of the Middle East and mentions of exotic marvels, might have been the work of Rustichello, who was giving what medieval European readers expected to find in a travel book.<ref name="ReferenceA">Latham, Ronald "Introduction" pp. 7–20 from ''The Travels of Marco Polo'', London: Folio Society, 1958 p. 12.</ref>

=== Role of the Dominican Order ===
Apparently, from the very beginning, Marco's story aroused contrasting reactions, as it was received by some with a certain disbelief. The [[Dominican Order|Dominican father]] Francesco Pipino was the author of a translation into Latin, {{language |la |Iter Marci Pauli Veneti}} in 1302, just a few years after Marco's return to Venice. Francesco Pipino solemnly affirmed the truthfulness of the book and defined Marco as a "prudent, honoured and faithful man".<ref name="Rinaldo Fulin 1924, p. 255">[Rinaldo Fulin, Archivio Veneto, 1924, p. 255]</ref> In his writings, the [[Dominican Order|Dominican brother]]  Jacopo d'Acqui explains why his contemporaries were sceptical about the content of the book. He also relates that before dying, Marco Polo insisted that "he had told only a half of the things he had seen".<ref name="Rinaldo Fulin 1924, p. 255" />

According to some recent research of the Italian scholar Antonio Montefusco, the very close relationship that Marco Polo cultivated with members of the [[Dominican Order]] in Venice suggests that local fathers collaborated with him for a Latin version of the book, which means that Rustichello's text was translated into Latin for a precise will of the Order.<ref name="unive.it" />

Since Dominican fathers had among their [[Christian mission|missions]] that of evangelising foreign peoples ({{linktext|cf.}} the role of Dominican missionaries in China<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=e7xWAAAAcAAJ&q=domenicani+missionari|title=Apologia de'padri domenicani missionarii della China, o pvro risposta al libro del P. Le Tellier ... intitolato "difesa de nuovi Cristiani" ...|first=Natalis|last=Alexandre|date=13 July 1699|publisher=Heredi di Cornelio d'Egmond|via=Google Books}}</ref> and in the Indies<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_Jb6aUU-a0u0C|title=Galleria de'Sommi Pontefici, patriarchi, arcivescovi, e vescovi dell'ordine de'Predicatori. Divisata con cinque cronologie. Tomo primo 2.. Pubblicato ... da Fr. Gio. Michele Cavalieri da Bergamo, maestro nella sagra teologia dello stesso Ordine, ... Con un catalogo de'cardinali Domenicani, e con cinque indici copiosissimi ... ne : Giovanni Michele m. 1701 Cavalieri : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming|website=Internet Archive|year=1696}}</ref>),{{ambiguous |reason=if you mean to say "comparable with" then say that, and if you mean to say "somewhat similar to" or "in contrast to" then say that. Be clear and unambiguous to all readers |date=May 2025}} it is reasonable to think that they considered Marco's book as a trustworthy piece of information for [[Mission (station)|missions]] in the East. The [[diplomatic communications]] between [[Pope Innocent IV]] and [[Pope Gregory X]] with the Mongols<ref>Peter Jackson, ''The Mongols and the West: 1221–1410'' (New York: Routledge 2014), especially pp. 167–196. B. Roberg, "Die Tartaren auf dem 2. Konzil von Lyon 1274," ''Annuarium historiae conciliarum'' 5 (1973), 241–302.</ref> were probably another reason for this endorsement. At the time, there was open discussion of a possible Christian-Mongol alliance with an anti-Islamic function.<ref name=richard-465>Jean Richard, ''Histoire des Croisades'' (Paris: Fayard 1996), p.465</ref> A Mongol delegate was solemnly baptised at the [[Second Council of Lyon]]. At the council, Pope Gregory X promulgated a new [[Crusade]] to start in 1278 in liaison with the Mongols.<ref>"1274: Promulgation of a Crusade, in liaison with the Mongols", Jean Richard, "Histoire des Croisades", p.502/French, p. 487/English</ref>

=== Authenticity and veracity ===
[[File:BNF Fr2810 f136v Frontispice Grant Kaan de Cathay.jpeg|thumb|upright|Kublai Khan's court, from the French "Livre des merveilles"]]
Since its publication, some have viewed the book with skepticism.<ref name="chang" /> Some in the Middle Ages regarded the book simply as a romance or fable, due largely to the sharp difference of its descriptions of a sophisticated civilisation in China to other early accounts by [[Giovanni da Pian del Carpine]] and [[William of Rubruck]], who portrayed the Mongols as '[[barbarian]]s' who appeared to belong to 'some other world'.<ref name="chang">{{cite web |url=http://www.history.ac.uk/reviews/review/1667#f2 |title=Marco Polo Was in China: New Evidence from Currencies, Salts and Revenues |author=Na Chang |work=Reviews in History |access-date=16 October 2016 |archive-date=15 January 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190115015148/https://www.history.ac.uk/reviews/review/1667#f2 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Doubts have also been raised in later centuries about Marco Polo's narrative of his travels in China, for example for his failure to mention the [[Great Wall of China]], and in particular the difficulties in identifying many of the place names he used<ref name="haw1">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DSfvfr8VQSEC&pg=PA1 |title=Marco Polo's China: A Venetian in the Realm of Khubilai Khan |first= Stephen G. |last=Haw |page=1 |publisher=Routledge| isbn=978-1-134-27542-7|year=2006 }}</ref> (the great majority, however, have since been identified).<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DSfvfr8VQSEC&pg=PA123 |title=Marco Polo's China: A Venetian in the Realm of Khubilai Khan |first= Stephen G. |last=Haw |pages=83–123 |publisher=Routledge| isbn=978-1-134-27542-7|year=2006 }}</ref> Many have questioned whether he had visited the places he mentioned in his itinerary, whether he had appropriated the accounts of his father and uncle or other travellers, and some doubted whether he even reached China, or that if he did, perhaps never went beyond [[Khanbaliq]] (Beijing).<ref name="haw1" /><ref name="haeger" />

It has been pointed out that Polo's accounts of China are more accurate and detailed than other travellers' accounts of the period. Polo had at times refuted the 'marvellous' fables and legends given in other European accounts, and despite some exaggerations and errors, Polo's accounts have relatively few of the descriptions of irrational marvels. In many cases of descriptions of events where he was not present (mostly given in the first part before he reached China, such as mentions of Christian miracles), he made a clear distinction that they are what he had heard rather than what he had seen.  It is also largely free of the gross errors found in other accounts such as those given by the Moroccan traveller [[Ibn Battuta]] who had confused the [[Yellow River]] with the [[Grand Canal (China)|Grand Canal]] and other waterways, and believed that [[porcelain]] was made from coal.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DSfvfr8VQSEC&pg=PA67 |title=Marco Polo's China: A Venetian in the Realm of Khubilai Khan |first= Stephen G. |last=Haw |pages=66–67 |publisher=Routledge| isbn=978-1-134-27542-7|year=2006 }}</ref>

Modern studies have further shown that details given in Marco Polo's book, such as the currencies used, salt productions and revenues, are accurate and unique. Such detailed descriptions are not found in other non-Chinese sources, and their accuracy is supported by archaeological evidence as well as Chinese records compiled after Polo had left China. His accounts are therefore unlikely to have been obtained second hand.<ref name="vogel" /> Other accounts have also been verified; for example, when visiting [[Zhenjiang]] in [[Jiangsu]], China, Marco Polo noted that a large number of [[Christian church]]es had been built there. His claim is confirmed by a Chinese text of the 14th century explaining how a [[Sogdia]]n named Mar-Sargis from [[Samarkand]] founded six [[Nestorianism|Nestorian Christian churches]] there in addition to one in [[Hangzhou]] during the second half of the 13th century.<ref>Emmerick, R.E. (2003) "Iranian Settlement East of the Pamirs", in Ehsan Yarshater, ''The Cambridge History of Iran, Vol III: The Seleucid, Parthian, and Sasanian Periods'', Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 275.</ref> His story of the princess [[Kököchin]] sent from China to Persia to marry the Īl-khān is also confirmed by independent sources in both Persia and China.<ref name="cleaves" />

== Scholarly analyses ==
[[File:LetterInnocenceToTartarKingAndPeople a.jpg|thumb|upright=0.75|Text of the letter of [[Pope Innocent IV]] "to the ruler and people of the Tartars", brought to [[Güyüg Khan]] by [[John de Carpini]], 1245]]
[[File:Guyuk khan's Stamp 1246.jpg|thumb|upright=0.75|The seal of [[Güyük Khan]] using the classical [[Mongolian script]], as found in a letter sent to the Roman [[Pope Innocent IV]] in 1246]]
[[File:LetterArghunToNicholasIV1290VaticanArchives.jpg|thumb|upright=0.75|A letter from [[Arghun]], Khan of the Mongol [[Ilkhanate]], to [[Pope Nicholas IV]], 1290]]
[[File:GhazanSeal1302LetterToBonifaceVIII.JPG|thumb|upright=0.75|The seal of the Mongol ruler [[Ghazan]], in a 1302 letter to [[Pope Boniface VIII]], with an inscription in Chinese [[seal script]]]]

=== Explaining omissions ===
Sceptics have long wondered whether Marco Polo wrote his book based on hearsay, with some pointing to omissions about noteworthy practices and structures of China as well as the lack of details on some places in his book. While Polo describes [[paper money]] and the burning of coal, he fails to mention the [[Great Wall of China]], [[tea]], [[Chinese characters]], [[chopstick]]s, or [[footbinding]].<ref>Frances Wood, ''[[Did Marco Polo Go to China?]]'' (London: Secker & Warburg; Boulder, Colorado: Westview, 1995).</ref> His failure to note the presence of the Great Wall of China was first raised in the middle of the 17th century, and in the middle of the 18th century, it was suggested that he had never reached China.<ref name="haw1" />  Later scholars such as John W. Haeger argued that Marco Polo might not have visited Southern China, in view of the lack of details in his description of southern Chinese cities compared to northern ones, while [[Herbert Franke (sinologist)|Herbert Franke]] also raised the possibility that Marco Polo had not been to China at all, and wondered if he had based his accounts on Persian sources, in view of his use of Persian expressions.<ref name="haeger">{{cite journal |jstor=23497510|title= Marco Polo in China? Problems with Internal Evidence |first=John W. |last=Haeger|journal=Bulletin of Sung and Yüan Studies |volume= 14 |issue= 14 |date=1978|pages= 22–30 }}</ref><ref name="franke">{{cite journal |jstor=23881433|title=Sino-Western Contacts Under the Mongol Empire |first=Herbert |last=Franke |journal=Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society |volume= 6 |date=1966| pages= 49–72}}</ref> This is taken further by [[Frances Wood]], who claimed in her 1995 book ''[[Did Marco Polo Go to China?]]'' that at best Polo never went farther east than Persia (modern Iran), and that there is nothing in ''The Book of Marvels'' about China that could not have been obtained by reading Persian books.<ref name="Morgan, D page 222">Morgan, D.O. "Marco Polo in China—Or Not" 221–225 from ''The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society'', Volume 6, Issue # 2 July 1996 p. 222.</ref> Wood maintains that it is more probable that Polo went only to Constantinople (modern Istanbul, Turkey) and some of the Italian merchant colonies around the Black Sea, picking hearsay from those travellers who had been farther east.<ref name="Morgan, D page 222" />

Supporters of Polo's basic accuracy countered on the points raised by sceptics such as footbinding and the Great Wall of China. Historian [[Stephen G. Haw]] argued that the Great Walls were built to keep out northern invaders, whereas the ruling dynasty during Marco Polo's visit were those very northern invaders. They note that the Great Wall familiar to us today is a [[Ming dynasty|Ming]] structure built some two centuries after Marco Polo's travels; and that the [[Yuan dynasty|Mongol]] rulers whom Polo served, controlled territories north and south of today's wall, and would have had no reasons to maintain any fortifications that might have remained there from the earlier dynasties.<ref name=polo>{{citation |first=Stephen G. |last=Haw |publisher=Psychology Press |year=2006|isbn=978-0-415-34850-8 |title=Marco Polo's China: a Venetian in the realm of Khubilai Khan |series=Volume 3 of Routledge studies in the early history of Asia |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=DSfvfr8VQSEC&pg=PA54 |pages=52–57}}</ref> 

Other Europeans who travelled to [[Khanbaliq]] during the Yuan dynasty, such as [[Giovanni de' Marignolli]] and [[Odoric of Pordenone]], said nothing about the wall either. The Muslim traveller [[Ibn Battuta]], who asked about the wall when he visited China during the Yuan dynasty, could find no one who either had seen it, or knew of anyone who had seen it, suggesting that while ruins of the wall constructed in the earlier periods might have existed, they were not significant or noteworthy at that time.<ref name=polo />

Haw argued that footbinding was not common even among Chinese during Polo's time and almost unknown among the Mongols. While the Italian missionary [[Odoric of Pordenone]] who visited [[Yuan dynasty|Yuan]] China mentioned footbinding (it is however unclear whether he was merely relaying something he had heard as his description is inaccurate),<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iL2AAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA196 |title=Women and the Family in Chinese History |first=Patricia|last= Ebrey |page=196|publisher=Routledge |isbn= 978-1-134-44293-5 |year=2003 }}</ref> no other foreign visitors to [[Yuan dynasty|Yuan]] China mentioned the practice, perhaps an indication that the footbinding was not widespread or was not practised in an extreme form at that time.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DSfvfr8VQSEC&pg=PA55 |title=Marco Polo's China: A Venetian in the Realm of Khubilai Khan |first= Stephen G. |last=Haw |pages=55–56 |publisher=Routledge| isbn=978-1-134-27542-7|year=2006 }}</ref> Marco Polo noted in the Toledo manuscript, the dainty walk of Chinese women who took very short steps.<ref name=polo /> 

It has been noted by other scholars that many of the things not mentioned by Marco Polo, such as tea and chopsticks, were not mentioned by other travellers either.<ref name="Igor">{{cite web |author=de Rachewiltz |first=Igor |author-link=Igor de Rachewiltz |title=F. Wood's Did Marco Polo Go To China? A Critical Appraisal by I. de Rachewiltz |url=https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/bitstream/1885/41883/1/Marcopolo.html |access-date=20 August 2022 |website=The Australian National University |archive-date=3 November 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161103220812/https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/bitstream/1885/41883/1/Marcopolo.html |url-status=live }}</ref>  Haw pointed out that despite the few omissions, Marco Polo's account is more extensive, more accurate and more detailed than those of other foreign travellers to China in this period.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DSfvfr8VQSEC&pg=PA63 |title=Marco Polo's China: A Venetian in the Realm of Khubilai Khan |first= Stephen G. |last=Haw |pages=65–66 |publisher=Routledge| isbn=978-1-134-27542-7|date=22 November 2006 }}</ref> Marco Polo even observed Chinese [[nautical]] [[List of Chinese inventions|inventions]] such as the [[watertight compartment]]s of [[Bulkhead (partition)|bulkhead partitions]] in [[Junk (ship)|Chinese ships]], knowledge of which he was keen to share with his fellow Venetians.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/westernpowerinas0000cott|url-access=registration|title=Western Power in Asia: Its Slow Rise and Swift Fall, 1415–1999 |first=Arthur|last= Cotterell |page=[https://archive.org/details/westernpowerinas0000cott/page/9 9]|publisher=John Wiley & Sons |isbn= 978-0-470-82489-4|date=4 August 2011 }}</ref>

In addition to Haw, other scholars have argued in favour of the established view that Polo was in China, in response to Wood's book.<ref name="Igor" /> The book has been criticised by figures including [[Igor de Rachewiltz]] (translator and annotator of ''[[The Secret History of the Mongols]]'') and Morris Rossabi (author of ''Kublai Khan: his life and times'').<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/mongols/pop/polo/mp_essay.htm|title=Mongols in World History &#124; Asia for Educators|website=afe.easia.columbia.edu|access-date=26 November 2019|archive-date=23 June 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120623210910/http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/mongols/pop/polo/mp_essay.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> The historian [[David Morgan (historian)|David Morgan]] points out basic errors made in Wood's book such as confusing the [[Liao dynasty]] with the [[Jin dynasty (1115–1234)|Jin dynasty]], and he found no compelling evidence in the book that would convince him that Marco Polo did not go to China.<ref name="Morgan, D page 224">{{cite journal |jstor=25183182|author= Morgan, D. O. |title=Marco Polo in China-Or Not" 221–225 |journal=The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society|volume = 6|issue= 2 |date=July 1996 |page= 224|doi= 10.1017/S1356186300007203 |s2cid= 154625708 }}</ref> 

Haw argues in his book ''Marco Polo's China'' that Marco's account is much more correct and accurate than has often been supposed and that it is extremely unlikely that he could have obtained all the information in his book from secondhand sources.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.routledge.com/Marco-Polos-China-A-Venetian-in-the-Realm-of-Khubilai-Khan/Haw/p/book/9780415546003|title=Marco Polo's China: A Venetian in the Realm of Khubilai Khan|website=CRC Press|access-date=13 July 2020|archive-date=3 June 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230603150631/https://www.routledge.com/Marco-Polos-China-A-Venetian-in-the-Realm-of-Khubilai-Khan/Haw/p/book/9780415546003|url-status=live}}</ref> Haw criticizes Wood's approach to finding mention of Marco Polo in Chinese texts by contending that contemporaneous Europeans had little regard for using [[Surname#history|surnames]] and that a direct Chinese [[transliteration]] of the name "Marco" ignores the possibility of his taking on a [[Chinese name|Chinese]] or even [[Mongolian name|Mongol name]] with no similarity to his [[Christian name|Latin name]].<ref>Stephen G. Haw (2006), ''Marco Polo's China: a Venetian in the Realm of Kublai Khan'', London and New York: Routledge, p. 173, {{ISBN|0-415-34850-1}}.</ref>

In reply to Wood, Jørgen Jensen recalled the meeting of Marco Polo and [[Pietro d'Abano]] in the late 13th century. During this meeting, Marco gave to Pietro details of the astronomical observations he had made on his journey. These observations are compatible with Marco's stay in China, [[Sumatra]] and the [[South China Sea]]<ref>J. Jensen, "The World's most diligent observer." Asiatische Studien 51.3 (1997): 719–728</ref> and are recorded in Pietro's book ''Conciliator Differentiarum'', but not in Marco's ''Book of Travels''.

Reviewing Haw's book, [[Peter Jackson (historian)|Peter Jackson]] (author of ''The Mongols and the West'') has said that Haw "must surely now have settled the controversy surrounding the historicity of Polo's visit to China".<ref>{{Cite journal|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/bulletin-of-the-school-of-oriental-and-african-studies/article/stephen-g-haw-marco-polos-china-a-venetian-in-the-realm-of-khubilai-khan-routledge-studies-in-the-early-history-of-asia-vii-214-pp-london-and-new-york-routledge-2006-65-isbn-0-415-34850-1/E665C99EC913CE7D1AC8AF6128478182|title=Stephen G. Haw: Marco Polo's China. A Venetian in the Realm of Khubilai Khan. (Routledge Studies in the Early History of Asia.) vii, 214 pp. London and New York: Routledge, 2006. £65. ISBN 0 415 34850 1.|first=Peter|last=Jackson|date=13 June 2007|journal=Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies|volume=70|issue=2|pages=438–440|via=Cambridge Core|doi=10.1017/S0041977X07000651|url-access=subscription|archive-date=13 July 2020|access-date=13 July 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200713132414/https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/bulletin-of-the-school-of-oriental-and-african-studies/article/stephen-g-haw-marco-polos-china-a-venetian-in-the-realm-of-khubilai-khan-routledge-studies-in-the-early-history-of-asia-vii-214-pp-london-and-new-york-routledge-2006-65-isbn-0-415-34850-1/E665C99EC913CE7D1AC8AF6128478182|url-status=live}}</ref> Igor de Rachewiltz's review, which refutes Wood's points, concludes with a strongly worded condemnation:<ref>{{cite journal |last=Rachewiltz |first=Igor de |author-link=Igor de Rachewiltz |year=1997 |title=Marco Polo Went to China |journal=Zentralasiatische Studien |volume=27 |pages=34–92 }}</ref>
{{blockquote |text=I regret to say that F. W.'s book falls short of the standard of scholarship that one would expect in a work of this kind. Her book can only be described as deceptive, both in relation to the author and to the public at large. Questions are posed that, in the majority of cases, have already been answered satisfactorily ... her attempt is unprofessional; she is poorly equipped in the basic tools of the trade, i.e., adequate linguistic competence and research methodology ... and her major arguments cannot withstand close scrutiny. Her conclusion fails to consider all the evidence supporting Marco Polo's credibility.}}

=== Allegations of exaggeration ===
[[File:Statue of Marco Polo.jpg|thumb|upright|A bust of Marco Polo in the garden of [[Villa Borghese]] in [[Rome]], Italy]]
Some scholars believe that Marco Polo exaggerated his importance in China. The British historian [[David Morgan (historian)|David Morgan]] thought that Polo had likely exaggerated and lied about his status in China,<ref name="Morgan, D page 223" /> while Ronald Latham believed that such exaggerations were embellishments by his ghostwriter [[Rustichello da Pisa]].<ref name="ReferenceA" />{{sfn |Eusebi |Burgio |2018 |p=162 |loc=section CXLIII }}
{{blockquote |multiline=yes
|text={{lang|fr|Et meser Marc Pol meisme, celui de cui trate ceste livre, seingneurie ceste cité por trois anz.}}

{{lang|en|And the same Marco Polo, of whom this book relates, ruled this city for three years.}}
|author=Mario Eusebi
|title=''Marco Polo. Le divisement dou monde''
}}

This sentence in ''The Book of Marvels'' was interpreted as Marco Polo was "the governor" of the city of "Yangiu" [[Yangzhou]] for three years, and later of [[Hangzhou]]. This claim has raised some controversy. According to [[David Morgan (historian)|David Morgan]]  no Chinese source mentions him as either a friend of the Emperor or as the governor of Yangzhou – indeed no Chinese source mentions Marco Polo at all.<ref name="Morgan, D page 223">Morgan, D.O. "Marco Polo in China—Or Not" 221–225 from ''The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society'', Volume 6, Issue # 2 July 1996 p. 223.</ref> In the 1960s the German historian [[Herbert Franke (sinologist)|Herbert Franke]] noted that all occurrences of Po-lo or Bolod in Yuan texts were names of people of Mongol or Turkic extraction.<ref name="franke" />

In the 2010s the Chinese scholar [[Peng Hai]] claimed to have identified Marco Polo with a certain "Boluo" ({{Lang-zh|t=孛羅|s=孛罗|p=Bóluō|labels=no}}), a courtier of the emperor, who is mentioned in Volume 119 of the ''[[History of Yuan]]'' ({{zh|p=Yuánshǐ|labels=no}}) commissioned by the succeeding Ming dynasty. The claim arises out of the report that Boluo was arrested in 1274 by an imperial dignitary named Saman ({{zh|t=撒蠻|p=Sāmán|labels=no}}) for walking on the same side of the road as a female courtesan, in contravention of the order for men and women to walk on opposite sides of the road inside the city.<ref>Peng, Hai, 2010, "Makeboluolaihuashishi", Beijing: Zhongguo she hui ke xue chu ban she, {{ISBN|978-7-5004-9221-4}}</ref><ref>{{cite wikisource |title=元史 | trans-title=[[History of Yuan]] |wslink=元史 |chapter=卷119 |publisher=[[Ming dynasty]]|wslanguage=zh}}</ref> According to the ''History of Yuan'', Boluo was released at the request of the emperor himself, and was then transferred to the region of Ningxia, in the northeast of present-day China, in the spring of 1275. The date could correspond to the first mission of which Marco Polo speaks.<ref>Giulio Busi, "Marco Polo. Viaggio ai confini del Medioevo", Collezione Le Scie. Nuova serie, Milano, Mondadori, 2018, {{ISBN|978-88-0470-292-4}}, § "Boluo, il funzionario invisibile"</ref>

If this identification is correct, there is a record about Marco Polo in Chinese sources. These conjectures seem to be supported by the fact that in addition to the imperial dignitary Saman (the one who had arrested the official named "Boluo"), the documents mention his brother, Xiangwei ({{lang-zh|t=相威|p=Xiāngwēi|labels=no}}). According to sources, Saman died shortly after the incident, while Xiangwei was transferred to Yangzhou in 1282–1283. Marco Polo reports that he was moved to Hangzhou the following year, in 1284. It has been supposed that these displacements are due to the intention to avoid further conflicts between the two.<ref name="Busi">Giulio Busi, "Marco Polo. Viaggio ai confini del Medioevo", Collezione Le Scie. Nuova serie, Milano, Mondadori, 2018, {{ISBN|978-88-0470-292-4}}, § "Boluo, il funzionario invisibile</ref>

The sinologist [[Paul Pelliot]] thought that Polo might have served as an officer of the government salt monopoly in Yangzhou, which was a position of some significance that could explain the exaggeration.<ref name="Morgan, D page 223" />

It may seem unlikely that a European could hold a position of power in the Mongolian empire. Some records prove he was not the first nor the only one. In his book, Marco mentions an official named "Mar Sarchis" who probably was a [[Nestorianism|Nestorian Christian]] [[bishop]], and he says he founded two Christian churches in the region of "Caigiu". This official is actually mentioned in the local gazette ''Zhishun Zhenjian zhi'' under the name "Ma Xuelijisi" and the qualification of "General of Third Class". In the gazette, it is said Ma Xuelijsi was an assistant supervisor in the province of Zhenjiang for three years, and that during this time he founded two Christian churches.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HIR1DwAAQBAJ&q=%22Ma+Xuelijisi%22&pg=PA137|title=Yearbook of Chinese Theology 2018|date=25 October 2018|publisher=BRILL|isbn=978-90-04-38497-2|via=Google Books}}</ref><ref name="Vogel">{{cite book |author=Hans Ulrich Vogel|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ydo_9TEmuVQC&pg=PA1 |title=Marco Polo Was in China: New Evidence from Currencies, Salts and Revenues|publisher=  Brill |year= 2012|isbn= 978-90-04-23193-1|page=358}}</ref><ref name="Busi" /> It is a well-documented fact that [[Kublai Khan]] trusted foreigners more than his Chinese subjects in internal affairs.<ref name="Vogel:2">{{cite book |author=Hans Ulrich Vogel|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ydo_9TEmuVQC&pg=PA1 |title=Marco Polo Was in China: New Evidence from Currencies, Salts and Revenues|publisher=  Brill |year= 2012|isbn= 978-90-04-23193-1|page=69}}</ref><ref name="Busi" />

[[Stephen G. Haw]] challenges this idea that Polo exaggerated his own importance, writing that, "contrary to what has often been said&nbsp;... Marco does not claim any very exalted position for himself in the Yuan empire."<ref name="haw 2006 173">Stephen G. Haw (2006), ''Marco Polo's China: a Venetian in the Realm of Kublai Khan'', London & New York: Routledge, p. 173, {{ISBN|0-415-34850-1}}.</ref> He points out that Polo never claimed to hold high rank, such as a ''[[darughachi]]'', who led a ''[[Tumen (unit)|tumen]]'' – a unit that was normally 10,000 strong. Polo does not even imply that he had led 1,000 personnel. Haw points out that Polo himself appears to state only that he had been an emissary of the [[Khan (title)|khan]], in a position with some esteem. According to Haw, this is a reasonable claim if Polo was, for example, a ''[[keshig]]'' – a member of the imperial guard by the same name, which included as many as 14,000 individuals at the time.<ref name="haw 2006 173" />

Haw explains how the earliest [[manuscript]]s of Polo's accounts provide contradicting information about his role in Yangzhou, with some stating he was just a simple resident, others stating he was a governor, and [[Giovanni Battista Ramusio|Ramusio's manuscript]] claiming he was simply holding that office as a temporary substitute for someone else, yet all the manuscripts concur that he worked as an esteemed emissary for the khan.<ref>Stephen G. Haw (2006), ''Marco Polo's China: a Venetian in the Realm of Kublai Khan'', London & New York: Routledge, pp. 3–4, {{ISBN|0-415-34850-1}}.</ref> 

Another contradictory claim is at chapter 145 when ''The Book of Marvels'' states that the three Polos provided the Mongols with technical advice on building [[mangonel]]s during the [[Battle of Xiangyang|Siege of Xiangyang]],{{sfn |Eusebi |Burgio |2018 |p=164 |loc=section CXLV }}
{{blockquote |multiline=yes
|{{lang|fr|Adonc distrent les .II. freres et lor filz meser Marc. "Grant Sire, nos avon avech nos en nostre mesnie homes qe firont tielz mangan qe giteront si grant pieres qe celes de la cité ne poront sofrir mes se renderont maintenant."}}

{{lang|en|Then the two brothers and their son Marc said: "Great Lord, in our entourage we have men who will build such mangonels which launch such great stones, that the inhabitants of the city will not endure it and will immediately surrender."}}
|author=Mario Eusebi
|title=''Marco Polo. Le divisement dou monde''
}}

Since the siege was over in 1273, before Marco Polo had arrived in China for the first time, the claim cannot be true.<ref name="Morgan, D page 223" /><ref>{{Cite journal |url=https://www.cairn.info/revue-le-moyen-age-2011-2-page-315.htm |title=Pierre Racine, " Marco Polo, marchand ou reporter ? ", Le Moyen Age, vol. cxvii, no 2, 2011, p. 315–344 |journal=Le Moyen Age |year=2011 |issue=2 |pages=315–344 |last1=Racine |first1=Pierre |volume=CXVII |doi=10.3917/rma.172.0315 |url-access=subscription |archive-date=20 September 2018 |access-date=6 January 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180920122801/https://www.cairn.info/revue-le-moyen-age-2011-2-page-315.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>  The Mongol army that besieged Xiangyang did have foreign military engineers, but they were mentioned in Chinese sources as being from [[Baghdad]] and had Arabic names.<ref name="franke" /> In this respect, [[Igor de Rachewiltz]] recalls that the claim that the ''three'' Polo were present at the siege of Xiang-yang is not present in all manuscripts, but Niccolò and Matteo could have made this suggestion. Therefore, this claim seems a subsequent addition to give more credibility to the story.<ref>Marco Polo Went to China, in «Zentralasiatische Studien», vol. 27, 1997, pp. 34–92</ref><ref name="Igor" />

=== Errors ===
A number of errors in Marco Polo's account have been noted: for example, he described the bridge later known as [[Marco Polo Bridge]] as having twenty-four arches instead of eleven or thirteen.<ref name="Igor" />  He also said that city wall of Khanbaliq had twelve gates when it had only eleven.<ref>Stephen G. Haw (2006), ''Marco Polo's China: a Venetian in the Realm of Kublai Khan'', London & New York: Routledge, p. 73, {{ISBN|0-415-34850-1}}.</ref> Archaeologists have also pointed out that Polo may have mixed up the details from the two [[Mongol invasions of Japan|attempted invasions of Japan]] by [[Kublai Khan]] in 1274 and 1281. Polo wrote of five-[[Mast (sailing)|masted]] ships, when archaeological excavations found that the ships had only three masts.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/8691111/Explorer-Marco-Polo-never-actually-went-to-China.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220111/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/8691111/Explorer-Marco-Polo-never-actually-went-to-China.html |archive-date=11 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |title=Explorer Marco Polo 'never actually went to China|work= [[The Daily Telegraph]]|date= 9 August 2011 }}{{cbignore}}</ref>

=== Appropriation ===
Historian [[Frances Wood]] accused Marco Polo of taking other people's accounts in his book, retelling other stories as his own, or basing his accounts on Persian guidebooks or other lost sources. For example, Sinologist [[Francis Woodman Cleaves]] noted that Polo's account of the voyage of the princess [[Kököchin]] from China to Persia to marry the Īl-khān in 1293 has been confirmed by a passage in the 15th-century Chinese work ''[[Yongle Encyclopedia]]'' and by the Persian historian [[Rashid-al-Din Hamadani]] in his work ''[[Jami' al-tawarikh]]''.  However, neither of these accounts mentions Polo or indeed any European as part of the bridal party,<ref name="cleaves">{{cite journal |jstor=2718743|author=Francis Woodman Cleaves|title=A Chinese Source Bearing on Marco Polo's Departure from China and a Persian Source on his Arrival in Persia|journal=Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies| volume=36|date= 1976|pages=181–203|doi=10.2307/2718743}}</ref> and Wood used the lack of mention of Polo in these works as an example of Polo's "retelling of a well-known tale".  [[David O. Morgan]], in Polo's defence, noted that even the princess herself was not mentioned in the Chinese source and that it would have been surprising if Polo had been mentioned by Rashid-al-Din.<ref name="Morgan, D page 224" /> 

Historian [[Igor de Rachewiltz]] strongly criticised Wood's arguments in his review of her book.<ref name="Rachewiltz 1997 pp. 34">Igor de Rachewiltz, "Marco Polo Went to China," ''Zentralasiatische Studien'' 27 (1997), pp. 34–92</ref> Rachewiltz argued that Marco Polo's account allows the Persian and Chinese sources to be reconciled – by relaying the information that two of the three envoys sent (mentioned in the Chinese source and whose names accord with those given by Polo) had died during the voyage, it explains why only the third who survived, Coja/Khoja, was mentioned by Rashìd al-Dìn. Polo had therefore completed the story by providing information not found in either source. He also noted that the only Persian source that mentions the princess was not completed until 1310–11, therefore Marco Polo could not have learned the information from any Persian book.  According to de Rachewiltz, the concordance of Polo's detailed account of the princess with other independent sources that gave only incomplete information is proof of the veracity of Polo's story and his presence in China.<ref name="Rachewiltz 1997 pp. 34" />

=== Assessments ===
Morgan writes that since much of what ''The Book of Marvels'' has to say about China is "demonstrably correct",  any claim that Polo did not go to China "creates far more problems than it solves", therefore the "balance of probabilities" strongly suggests that Polo really did go to China, even if he exaggerated somewhat his importance in China.<ref>Morgan, D.O. "Marco Polo in China—Or Not" 221–225 from ''The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society'', Volume 6, Issue # 2 July 1996 pages 225.</ref> Haw dismisses the various anachronistic criticisms of Polo's accounts that started in the 17th century, and highlights Polo's accuracy in great part of his accounts, for example on features of the landscape such as the [[Grand Canal of China]].<ref>Stephen G. Haw (2006), ''Marco Polo's China: a Venetian in the Realm of Kublai Khan'', London & New York: Routledge, pp. 1–2, {{ISBN|0-415-34850-1}}.</ref> "If Marco was a liar," Haw writes, "then he must have been an implausibly meticulous one."<ref>Stephen G. Haw (2006), ''Marco Polo's China: a Venetian in the Realm of Kublai Khan'', London & New York: Routledge, pp. 2–3, {{ISBN|0-415-34850-1}}.</ref>

In 2012, the [[University of Tübingen]] Sinologist and historian Hans Ulrich Vogel released a detailed analysis of Polo's description of currencies, [[Salt in Chinese history#Early modern technology|salt production]] and revenues, and argued that the evidence supports his presence in China because he included details which he could not have otherwise known.<ref name="vogel">{{cite book |author=Hans Ulrich Vogel|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ydo_9TEmuVQC&pg=PA1 |title=Marco Polo Was in China: New Evidence from Currencies, Salts and Revenues|publisher=  Brill |year= 2012|isbn= 978-90-04-23193-1}}</ref><ref name=uot1204>{{cite news | url = http://www.alphagalileo.org/ViewItem.aspx?ItemId=119306&CultureCode=en | title = Marco Polo was not a swindler – he really did go to China | work = [[University of Tübingen]] | publisher = Alpha Galileo | date = 16 April 2012 | access-date = 3 May 2012 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120503104150/http://www.alphagalileo.org/ViewItem.aspx?ItemId=119306&CultureCode=en | archive-date = 3 May 2012 | url-status=dead | df = mdy-all }}</ref> Vogel noted that no other Western, Arab, or Persian sources have given such accurate and unique details about the currencies of China, for example, the shape and size of the paper, the use of seals, the various denominations of paper money as well as variations in currency usage in different regions of China, such as the use of [[cowry shell]]s in Yunnan, details supported by archaeological evidence and Chinese sources compiled long after the Polos had left China.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://newobserveronline.com/marco-polo-did-go-to-china-new-research-shows-and-the-history-of-paper/ |title=Marco Polo Did Go to China, New Research Shows (and the History of Paper) |date=31 July 2013 |work=The New Observer |access-date=25 October 2016 |archive-date=4 February 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170204134202/http://newobserveronline.com/marco-polo-did-go-to-china-new-research-shows-and-the-history-of-paper/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>  His accounts of salt production and revenues from the salt monopoly are also accurate, and accord with Chinese documents of the Yuan era.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/04/120416100439.htm |title=Marco Polo was not a swindler: He really did go to China |work=Science Daily |access-date=15 October 2016 |archive-date=18 October 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161018200124/https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/04/120416100439.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> 

Economic historian [[Mark Elvin]], in his preface to Vogel's 2013 monograph, concludes that Vogel "demonstrates by specific example after specific example the ultimately overwhelming probability of the broad authenticity" of Polo's account. Many problems were caused by the oral transmission of the original text and the proliferation of significantly different hand-copied manuscripts. For instance, did Polo exert "political authority" (''seignora'') in Yangzhou or merely "sojourn" (''sejourna'') there? Elvin concludes that "those who doubted, although mistaken, were not always being casual or foolish", but "the case as a whole had now been closed": the book is, "in essence, authentic, and, when used with care, in broad terms to be trusted as a serious though obviously not always final, witness."<ref>{{cite book |author=Hans Ulrich Vogel|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ydo_9TEmuVQC |title=Marco Polo Was in China: New Evidence from Currencies, Salts and Revenues|publisher=  Brill |year=2012|isbn= 978-90-04-23193-1|page = xix}}</ref>

== Legacy ==

=== Further exploration ===
{{See also|Age of Discovery|Europeans in Medieval China|Chronology of European exploration of Asia|Jorge Álvares|Rafael Perestrello}}
Other lesser-known European explorers had already travelled to China, such as [[Giovanni da Pian del Carpine]], but Polo's book meant that his journey was the first to be widely known. [[Christopher Columbus]] was inspired enough by Polo's description of the Far East to want to visit those lands for himself. A copy of Polo's book was among his belongings, with handwritten annotations.<ref name="Landström 1967 27" /> 

[[Bento de Góis]], inspired by Polo's writings of a Christian kingdom in the east, travelled {{convert|4000|mi|km|order=flip}} in three years across Central Asia. He never found the kingdom but ended his travels at the [[Great Wall of China]] in 1605, proving that Cathay was what [[Matteo Ricci]] (1552–1610) called ''China''.{{sfn |Winchester |2008 |p=264 }}
{{Gallery
|align=centre
|width=331
|height=240
<!-- |mode=packed -->
<!-- |noborder=yes -->

|File:ColombusNotesToMarcoPolo.jpg
|Handwritten notes by [[Christopher Columbus]] on a Latin edition of Polo's book

|File:FraMauroDetailedMapInverted.jpg
|The [[Fra Mauro map]], published around 1450 by the Venetian monk [[Fra Mauro]]
}}

=== Cartography ===
Marco Polo's travels may have had some influence on the development of European [[cartography]], ultimately leading to the [[Age of Discovery|European voyages of exploration]] a century later.<ref name="Falchetta">{{Harvnb|Falchetta|2006|p=592}}</ref> The 1453 [[Fra Mauro map]] was said by [[Giovanni Battista Ramusio]] (disputed by historian/cartographer Piero Falchetta, in whose work the quote appears) to have been partially based on the one brought from [[Cathay]] by Marco Polo:<ref name="Falchetta" />
{{blockquote |text=That fine illuminated world map on parchment, which can still be seen in a large cabinet alongside the choir of their monastery [the Camaldolese monastery of San Michele di Murano] was by one of the brothers of the monastery, who took great delight in the study of cosmography, diligently drawn and copied from a most beautiful and very old nautical map and a world map that had been brought from Cathay by the most honourable Messer Marco Polo and his father. |author=[[Giovanni Battista Ramusio]] }}

Though Marco Polo never produced a map that illustrated his journey, his family drew several maps of the Far East based on the traveller's accounts. These collections of maps were signed by Polo's three daughters, Fantina, Bellela and Moreta.<ref name="History3">{{cite web|url=http://www.history.com/news/did-marco-polo-visit-alaska|title=Did Marco Polo Visit Alaska?|last=Klein|first=Christopher|publisher=History|date=30 September 2014|access-date=2 February 2016|archive-date=17 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160317104932/http://www.history.com/news/did-marco-polo-visit-alaska|url-status=live}}</ref> The authenticity of these maps is uncertain. Benjamin B. Olshin a historian who wrote for the [[University of Chicago Press]] has been unable to "establish the authenticity"<ref name=ben/> of these maps once owned by Marcian Rossi, an Italian immigrant living in California during the 1930s known for peddaling [[Hoax|hoaxes]]. These maps have been compared to the [[Voyage of the Zeno brothers|Zeno Map]] hoax. However Olshin made no mention on the improbability they are real.<ref name=ben>{{Cite web |title=Did Marco Polo Explore Alaska? A Review of Benjamin B. Olshin's "The Mysteries of the Marco Polo Maps" (2014) |url=https://www.jasoncolavito.com/blog/did-marco-polo-explore-alaska-a-review-of-benjamin-b-olshins-the-mysteries-of-marco-polos-maps-2014 |access-date=2024-10-20 |website=JASON COLAVITO |language=en |archive-date=8 December 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241208083853/https://www.jasoncolavito.com/blog/did-marco-polo-explore-alaska-a-review-of-benjamin-b-olshins-the-mysteries-of-marco-polos-maps-2014 |url-status=live }}</ref> According to [[The Telegraph (London)|the Telegraph]], a [[Carbon-14|radiocarbon]] study of the sheepskin the maps are made of date back to the 15th or 16th century strongly suggesting they are copies of the original maps.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2014-09-26 |title=Did Marco Polo discover America in 13th century? |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/11124102/Did-Marco-Polo-discover-America-in-13th-century.html#:~:text=According%20to%20Smithsonian%20magazine,%20a,middle%20of%20the%2013th%20century. |access-date=2024-10-20 |website=The Telegraph |language=en |archive-date=8 December 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241208085007/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/11124102/Did-Marco-Polo-discover-America-in-13th-century.html#:~:text=According%20to%20Smithsonian%20magazine,%20a,middle%20of%20the%2013th%20century. |url-status=live }}</ref> 

=== Pasta myth ===
There is a legend about Marco Polo importing [[pasta]] from China; however, it is actually a [[List of common misconceptions|popular misconception]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ilovepasta.org/faqs.html|title=National Pasta Association |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120320211605/http://www.ilovepasta.org/faqs.html |archive-date=20 March 2012|url-status=dead}} article ''FAQs'' section "Who "invented" pasta?"; "The story that it was Marco Polo who imported noodles to Italy and thereby gave birth to the country's pasta culture is the most pervasive myth in the history of Italian food." (Dickie 2008, p. 48).</ref> originating with the ''Macaroni Journal'', published by a food industry association with the goal of promoting the use of pasta in the United States.<ref>S. Serventi, F. Sabban ''La pasta. Storia e cultura di un cibo universale'', VII. Economica Laterza 2004</ref> Marco Polo describes in his book a food similar to "[[lasagna]]", but he uses a term with which he was already familiar. Pasta had already been invented in Italy a long time before Marco Polo's travels to Asia.<ref name="Serventi 2002 10">{{cite book |title=Pasta: The Story of a Universal Food |last1=Serventi |first1=Silvano |date=2002 |publisher=Columbia University Press |translator-first=Antony |translator-last=Shugaar |isbn=978-0-231-12442-3 |location=New York |page=[https://archive.org/details/pastastoryofuniv00silv/page/10 10] |first2=Françoise |last2=Sabban |url=https://archive.org/details/pastastoryofuniv00silv/page/10 }}</ref> 

According to the [[National Pasta Association|National Macaroni Manufacturers Association]]<ref name="Serventi 2002 10" /> and food writer [[Jeffrey Steingarten]],<ref name=Steingarten>{{cite book|author=Jeffrey Steingarten|title=The Man Who Ate Everything|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=T33d0IIwwaQC|year=1998|publisher=Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group|isbn=978-0-375-70202-0|page=260}}</ref> [[durum wheat]] was introduced by Arabs from Libya, [[Emirate of Sicily|during their rule]] over [[Sicily]] in the late 9th century, predating Marco Polo's travels by about four centuries.<ref name=Steingarten /> Steingarten mentioned that [[Jane Grigson]] believed the Marco Polo story to have originated in the 1920s or 30s in an advertisement for a Canadian spaghetti company.<ref name=Steingarten />

=== Commemoration ===
[[File:Lire 1000 (Marco Polo) - Front.jpg|thumb|An Italian banknote issued in 1982, portraying Marco Polo]]
The ''[[Marco Polo sheep]]'', a subspecies of ''[[argali|Ovis ammon]]'', is named after the explorer,<ref>{{Harvnb|Bergreen|2007|p=74}}</ref> who described it during his crossing of [[Pamir Mountains|Pamir]] (ancient [[Mount Imeon]]) in 1271.{{efn |"Then there are sheep here as big as asses; and their tails are so large and fat, that one tail shall weigh some {{cvt|30|lb|disp=sqbr}}. They are fine fat beasts, and afford capital mutton."{{sfn |Yule |Cordier |1993 |loc=chapter 18 }} }}

In 1851, a three-masted [[clipper]] built in Saint John, New Brunswick took his name. The ''[[Marco Polo (1851 ship)|Marco Polo]]'' was the first ship to sail around the world in under six months.<ref>{{Harvnb|Lubbock|2008|p=86}}</ref> The airport in [[Venice]] is named ''[[Venice Marco Polo Airport]]''.<ref>{{citation|last=Brennan |first=D. |title=Lost in Venice |publisher=WalesOnline |date=1 February 2009 |url=http://www.walesonline.co.uk/travel/travel-news/2009/02/01/lost-in-venice-91466-22826493/ |access-date=15 July 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090830062732/http://www.walesonline.co.uk/travel/travel-news/2009/02/01/lost-in-venice-91466-22826493/ |archive-date=30 August 2009 }}</ref>

A square in [[Tianjin]] is named ''Marco Polo Square''.<ref>{{Citation |last=Wei |first=Kaihao |url=https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/201610/07/WS5a2b88f1a310eefe3e9a0fca.html |title=A salute to classic 'modern' buildings |publisher=China Daily |date=7 October 2016 |access-date=19 June 2025 |archive-date=16 October 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201016043425/http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/201610/07/WS5a2b88f1a310eefe3e9a0fca.html |url-status=live }}</ref> In 2010, the ''Marco Polo Memorial Hall'' was erected in [[Yangzhou]], and renovated in 2023.<ref>{{Citation |url=https://english.news.cn/20230621/e7f4c4f61e3d4d85a74e775096e3f9c4/c.html |title=Across China: Walking in Marco Polo's footsteps in Yangzhou |publisher=Xinhua News Agency |date=21 June 2023 |access-date=21 June 2025 |archive-date=2 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230702173750/http://english.news.cn/20230621/e7f4c4f61e3d4d85a74e775096e3f9c4/c.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Citation |url=http://www.seeyangzhou.com/2024-12/31/c_1060487.htm |title=Follow Marco Polo on a trip through Yangzhou |publisher=Find China In Yangzhou |date=31 December 2024 |access-date=21 June 2025 |archive-date=29 April 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250429184620/http://www.seeyangzhou.com/2024-12/31/c_1060487.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>

Croatian [[state-owned]] [[shipping company]]'s ([[Jadrolinija]]) ship connecting [[Split, Croatia|Split]] with [[Ancona]] in Italy is named after Marco Polo.<ref name="Jadrolinija">{{cite web |url=https://www.jadrolinija.hr/en/about-us/ships/ferries/ferries-for-coastal-and-international-shipping/marko-polo |title=Marko Polo |publisher=[[Jadrolinija]] |access-date=2 June 2020 |archive-date=13 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200813204347/https://www.jadrolinija.hr/en/about-us/ships/ferries/ferries-for-coastal-and-international-shipping/marko-polo |url-status=live }}</ref>

=== Arts, entertainment, and media ===

==== Film ====
* ''[[The Adventures of Marco Polo]]'' (1938), directed by [[Archie Mayo]]
* ''[[Marco Polo (1961 film)|Marco Polo]]'' (1961)
* ''[[Marco the Magnificent]]'' (1965)
* ''[[Marco (1973 film)|Marco]]'' (1973), directed by [[Seymour Robbie]]
* ''Marco Polo'' (馬哥波羅) (1975), directed by [[Chang Cheh]]
*''[[Marco Polo Junior Versus the Red Dragon]]'' (1972), Australian animated film by [[Eric Porter (filmmaker)|Eric Porter]]<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-the-red-red-dragon-aka-marco-polo-jr-aka-marco-polo-junior-versus-72391157.html|title=Stock Photo – THE RED RED DRAGON, (aka MARCO POLO JR., aka MARCO POLO JUNIOR VERSUS THE RED DRAGON), US poster, 1972|website=Alamy|language=en|access-date=29 January 2020|archive-date=29 January 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200129233532/https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-the-red-red-dragon-aka-marco-polo-jr-aka-marco-polo-junior-versus-72391157.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

==== Games ====
* The game "[[Marco Polo (game)|Marco Polo]]" is a form of [[Tag (game)|tag]] played in a [[swimming pool]]<ref name=play>{{cite book |last=Bittarello |first=Maria Beatrice |title=Encyclopedia of Play in Today's Society |editor=Rodney P. Carlisle |publisher=SAGE |date=2009|chapter=Marco Polo |isbn=978-1-4129-6670-2 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7DiB3z2fBpAC&pg=PT416}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Jeffrey |first=Phillip |author2=Mike Blackstock |author3=Matthias Finke |author4=Anthony Tang |author5=Rodger Lea |author6=Meghan Deutscher |author7=Kento Miyaoku |title=Chasing the Fugitive on Campus: Designing a Location-based Game for Collaborative Play |journal=Proceedings of CGSA 2006 Symposium |url=http://journals.sfu.ca/loading/index.php/loading/article/viewFile/12/15 |archive-date=4 May 2018 |access-date=26 August 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180504043714/http://journals.sfu.ca/loading/index.php/loading/article/viewFile/12/15 |url-status=live }}</ref> or on land, with slightly modified rules.
* Polo appears as a Great Explorer in the 2008 strategy video game ''[[Civilization Revolution]]''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.civfanatics.com/civrev/great_people |title=Civilization Revolution: Great People |website=CivFanatics |access-date=4 September 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110317031836/http://www.civfanatics.com/civrev/great_people |archive-date=17 March 2011 }}</ref>
* Marco Polo's 1292 voyage from [[China]] is used as a backdrop for the plot of ''[[Uncharted 2: Among Thieves]]'' (2009), where [[Nathan Drake (character)|Nathan Drake]], the protagonist, searches for the [[Cintamani]] Stone, which was from the fabled city of [[Shambhala]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.naughtydog.com/games/uncharted2_among_thieves|title=Uncharted 2: Among Thieves|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110906110334/http://www.naughtydog.com/games/uncharted2_among_thieves/|archive-date=6 September 2011|url-status=dead}}</ref>
* A board game 'The Voyages of Marco Polo' plays over a map of Eurasia, with multiple routes to 'recreate' Polo's journey.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.zmangames.com/en/products/voyages-marco-polo/ |title=The Voyages of Marco Polo |access-date=17 November 2018 |archive-date=17 November 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181117151302/https://www.zmangames.com/en/products/voyages-marco-polo/ |url-status=dead }} [[Z-Man Games]]</ref>

==== Literature ====
The travels of Marco Polo are fictionalised in a number of works, such as:
* [[Brian Oswald Donn-Byrne]]'s ''Messer Marco Polo'' (1921)
* [[Italo Calvino]]'s novel ''[[Invisible Cities]]'' (1972), in which Polo appears as a pivotal character.
* [[Gary Jennings (author)|Gary Jennings]]' novel ''[[The Journeyer]]'' (1984)
* [[Avram Davidson]]'s novel (written with [[Grania Davis]]) ''[[Marco Polo and the Sleeping Beauty]]'' (1988), a serio-comic fantasy with Polo as the protagonist.
* [[James Rollins]]' [[James Rollins#SIGMA Force Book 4: The Judas Strain (2007)|SIGMA Force Book 4: ''The Judas Strain'']] (2007), in which facts about Polo's travels and conjecture about secrets he kept are interleaved with modern-day action.

==== Television ====
* In the 1953 television series ''[[You Are There (series)|You Are There]]'', Polo was portrayed by [[John Cassavetes]] in the episode "The Great Adventure of Marco Polo".
* In the 1964 serial ''[[Marco Polo (Doctor Who)|Marco Polo]]'' of the television series ''[[Doctor Who]]'', Polo was portrayed by [[Mark Eden]].
* The television miniseries, ''[[Marco Polo (1982 TV series)|Marco Polo]]'' (1982), featuring [[Ken Marshall]], [[Burt Lancaster]] and [[Ruocheng Ying]], and directed by [[Giuliano Montaldo]], depicts Polo's travels. It won two [[Emmy Award]]s, and was nominated for six more.<ref name=Emmy>{{Citation|title=Academy of Television Arts & Sciences |url=http://www.emmys.org/awards/awardsearch.php |access-date=6 July 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080330160256/http://www.emmys.org/awards/awardsearch.php |archive-date=30 March 2008 }} (Searching for "Marco Polo", and year 1982)</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083446/ |website=IMDb TV miniseries|title= Marco Polo |date= 1982}}</ref>
* The television film, ''[[Marco Polo (2007 film)|Marco Polo]]'' (2007), starring [[Brian Dennehy]] as Kublai Khan, and [[Ian Somerhalder]] as Marco, portrays Marco Polo being left alone in China while his uncle and father return to Venice, to be reunited with him many years later.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0813789/ |website=IMDb TV miniseries|title= Marco Polo |date=2007}}</ref>
* ''[[In the Footsteps of Marco Polo]]'' (2009) is a [[PBS]] documentary about two friends ([[Denis Belliveau]] and Francis O'Donnell) who conceived of the ultimate road trip to retrace Marco Polo's journey from Venice to China via land and sea.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.wliw.org/marcopolo|work=WLIW.org|title=In the footsteps of Marco Polo (PBS)|date=2009|access-date=26 February 2010|archive-date=2 September 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100902072531/http://www.wliw.org/marcopolo/|url-status=dead}}</ref>
* ''[[In Search of Marco Polo]]'' (2013), a Croatian documentary miniseries written and directed by Miro Branković.
* ''[[Marco Polo (2014 TV series)|Marco Polo]]'' (2014–2016) is a [[Netflix]] television drama series about Marco Polo's early years in the court of [[Kublai Khan]] created by [[John Fusco]].<ref>{{cite news |title=Netflix's 'Marco Polo' Sets December Premiere Date |url=https://deadline.com/2014/08/netflixs-marco-polo-sets-december-premiere-date-826156/ |access-date=28 August 2014 |work=[[Deadline Hollywood]] |date=28 August 2014 |archive-date=26 December 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181226043713/https://deadline.com/2014/08/netflixs-marco-polo-sets-december-premiere-date-826156/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/marco-polo-canceled-at-netflix-two-seasons-955561 |title='Marco Polo' Canceled at Netflix After Two Seasons |work=[[The Hollywood Reporter]] |access-date=13 December 2016 |date=12 December 2016 |last=Goldberg |first=Lesley |archive-date=2 December 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201202030850/https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/marco-polo-canceled-at-netflix-two-seasons-955561 |url-status=live }}</ref>

== See also ==
* [[Chronology of European exploration of Asia]]
* [[John of Montecorvino]], Catholic Italian missionary to China
* [[Katarina Vilioni]] (d. 1342), an Italian woman whose tombstone was found in [[Yangzhou]], China
* [[Rabban Bar Sauma]], Uyghur Nestorian Christian monk from [[Zhongdu]] ([[Khanbaliq]], modern Beijing) who led a Mongol diplomatic mission to medieval European monarchs and the pope, visiting Greece, Italy, and France

== Notes ==
{{Notelist}}

== References ==
{{Reflist |23em}}

== Sources ==
{{Refbegin |30em |indent=yes}}
*{{citation|last=Bergreen|first=Laurence|author-link=Laurence Bergreen|title=Marco Polo: From Venice to Xanadu|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=x-PZdFbG6dEC|year=2007|publisher=Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group|isbn=978-0-307-26769-6}}
*{{citation |last1=Bram |first1=Leon L. |last2=Phillips |first2=Robert S. |last3=Dickey |first3=Norma H. |year=1983 |title=Funk & Wagnalls New Encyclopedia |publisher=[[Funk & Wagnalls]] |location=New York |isbn=978-0-8343-0051-4 }} (Article republished in 2006 World Almanac Books, available online from [https://web.archive.org/web/20090412181453/http://www.history.com/encyclopedia.do?articleId=219550 History.com])
*{{Citation | last=Brook | first=Timothy | author-link=Timothy Brook | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b80ePdTYWXoC&q=Marco+Polo+Korcula&pg=PA24 | title=The Troubled Empire: China in the Yuan and Ming Dynasties | year=2010 | publisher=Harvard University Press | isbn=978-0-674-04602-3 }}
*{{citation |last=Edwards |first=Mike |year=2005 |title=Marco Polo, Part 1 |publisher=[[National Geographic Society]] |location=Washington, D.C. |url=http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0105/feature1/index.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080205054538/http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0105/feature1/index.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=5 February 2008 }}
*{{Citation |ref={{sfnref |Britannica |2002 }} |title=The New Encyclopædia Britannica Macropedia |edition=15 |publisher=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]], Inc |isbn=978-0-85229-787-2 |contribution=Marco Polo |volume=9 |year=2002 }}
*{{cite web |title=Marco Polo |year=2010 |website=Encyclopædia Britannica |access-date=2010-08-28 |url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/468139/Marco-Polo |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150508185508/http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/468139/Marco-Polo |archive-date=2015-05-08 }}
*{{cite book |editor1-last=Eusebi |editor1-first=Mario |editor2-last=Burgio |editor2-first=Eugenio |year=2018 |title=Marco Polo. Le divisement dou monde |trans-title=Marco Polo. The division of the World |language=it |series=Medieval and Modern Philologies, Western Series 13 |volume=16 |location=Venice |publisher=Università Ca' Foscari (Venice University Press) |url=https://edizionicafoscari.unive.it/media/pdf/books/978-88-6969-224-6/978-88-6969-224-6_69TdyXc.pdf |access-date=2025-05-26 |eissn=2610-9441 |issn=2610-945X |isbn=978-88-6969-223-9 |doi=10.14277/978-88-6969-223-9/FMM-19 |last1=Eusebi |first1=Mario |last2=Burgio |first2=Eugenio |archive-date=30 April 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190430082030/https://edizionicafoscari.unive.it/media/pdf/books/978-88-6969-224-6/978-88-6969-224-6_69TdyXc.pdf |url-status=live }}
*{{citation | last = Falchetta | first = Piero | author-link = Piero Falchetta | title = Fra Mauro's World Map | location = [[Turnhout]] | publisher=[[Brepols]] | year = 2006 | isbn = 978-2-503-51726-1}}
*{{Citation|last=Landström|first=Björn |title=Columbus: the story of Don Cristóbal Colón, Admiral of the Ocean|publisher=Macmillan|location=New York City|year=1967}}
*{{citation |last=Lubbock |first=Basil |author-link=Basil Lubbock |year=2008 |title=The Colonial Clippers |publisher=Read Books |isbn=978-1-4437-7119-1 }}
*{{cite book |last=Nicol |first=Donald M. |author-link=Donald Nicol |year=1992 |title=Byzantium and Venice: a study in diplomatic and cultural relations |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-42894-1 }}
*{{citation|last=Parker|first=John|author-link=John Parker (author)|contribution=Marco Polo|location=United States|title=The World Book Encyclopedia|publisher=World Book, Inc.|year=2004|volume=15|edition=illustrated|isbn=978-0-7166-0104-3|title-link=World Book Encyclopedia}}
*{{citation|last=Power|first=Eileen Edna |title=Medieval People|publisher=BiblioBazaar|year=2007|isbn=978-1-4264-6777-6}}
*{{citation |last=Puljiz-Šostik |first=Željana |year=2015 |title=Marco Polo i njegov Le Divisiment dou monde (Opis svijeta): fikcija i fakcija u književnoj historiografiji |trans-title=Marco Polo and his Description of the world: fact and fiction in the history of literature |publisher=Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb |location=Zagreb |language=hr |url=http://bib.irb.hr/prikazi-rad?lang=en&rad=753305 |access-date=2025-05-26 |archive-date=6 July 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170706144256/http://bib.irb.hr/prikazi-rad?lang=en&rad=753305 |url-status=dead }}
*{{citation|last=Winchester|first=Simon|author-link=Simon Winchester|title=The Man Who Loved China: Joseph Needham and the Making of a Masterpiece|location=New York|publisher=[[HarperCollins]]|year=2008|isbn=978-0-06-088459-8|url=https://archive.org/details/manwholovedchina00simo_0}}
*{{citation|last=Wood|first=Frances|author-link=Frances Wood|title=Did Marco Polo Go To China?|publisher=Westview Press|year=1998|isbn=978-0-8133-8999-8|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yMRVjwNIqW0C&q=Did+Marco+Polo+Go+to+China%3F}}
*{{cite book |last1=Yule |first1=Henry |author-link1=Henry Yule |last2=Cordier |first2=Henri |author-link2=Henri Cordier |year=1993 |title=The Travels Of Marco Polo |publisher=Dover Publications |location=Mineola |isbn=978-0-486-27586-4 |lccn=92039066 |oclc=27012654 |ol=OL1734231M |url=https://archive.org/details/travelsofmarcopo00polo_0 |access-date=2025-05-26 }}
{{Refend}}

== Further reading ==
{{Refbegin |30em}}
*{{CathEncy <!-- Herbermann (1913) --> |wstitle=Marco Polo }}
*{{citation |ref={{sfnref |Berg |1915 }} |contribution=Marco Polo |year=1915 |title=Nordisk familjebok |edition=Uggleupplagan |language=sv |contribution-url=https://runeberg.org/nfca/0687.html |title-link=Nordisk familjebok |access-date=26 December 2023 |archive-date=22 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231222183524/https://runeberg.org/nfca/0687.html |url-status=live }}
* {{cite book|last=Hart|first=H. Henry|author-link=Henry Hart (author)|title=Marco Polo, Venetian Adventurer|publisher=Kessinger Publishing|year=1948}}
* {{cite book |last=Dalrymple |first=William |author-link=William Dalrymple |title=In Xanadu: A Quest |url=https://archive.org/details/inxanaduquest00will/ |date=1989 |publisher=[[Collins Publishers|Collins]] |isbn=978-0-00-217948-5 |edition=Reprint |location=London |url-access=registration}}
* {{cite book |last=Daftary |first=Farhad |year=1994 |title=The Assassin legends: myths of the Ismaʻilis |edition=2nd |publisher=[[I.B. Tauris]] |page=213 |isbn=978-1-85043-705-5 }}
*{{cite book |last1=Grynaeus |first1=Simon |author1-link=Simon Grynaeus |last2=Huttichius |first2=Johannes |year=1532 |chapter=Marco Polo, ''Marci Poli Veneti de Regionibus Orientalibus'' |pages=350–418 |title=Novus Orbis Regionum ac Insularum Veteribus Incognitarum |location=Basel |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=x9tEAAAAcAAJ&q=Betlehem |access-date=2025-05-26 }}
* {{cite book |last1=McKay |first1=John |last2=Hill |first2=Bennet |last3=Buckler |first3=John |year=2006 |title=A History of Western Society |edition=8th |publisher=[[Houghton Mifflin Company]] |isbn=978-0-618-52266-8 |page=506 }}
* {{cite book|last1=Moule|first1=Arthur Christopher|last2=Pelliot|first2=Paul|author-link2=Paul Pelliot|date=1938|title=Marco Polo: The Description of the World|publisher=[[Routledge|George Routledge & Sons Limited]]|location=London|volume=1|url=https://archive.org/details/descriptionofwor01polo}}
* {{cite book|last=Otfinoski|first=Steven|title=Marco Polo: to China and back|year=2003|publisher=Benchmark Books|location=New York|isbn=978-0-7614-1480-3}}
* {{cite book |last=Polo |first=Marco |author-link=Marco Polo |year=1918 |title=The Travels of Marco Polo |editor-last=Marsden |editor-first=William |publisher=J.M. Dent & Sons |location=London |page=461 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VovVAAAAMAAJ |access-date=2025-05-26 }}
* {{cite book |author1=Polo, Marco |author2=[[Rustichello of Pisa]] |title=The Travels of Marco Polo – Volume 1 |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10636 |publisher=Project Gutenberg |date=1 January 2004 |access-date=2 April 2011 |archive-date=6 April 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110406141646/http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10636 |url-status=live }}
* {{cite book |author1=Polo, Marco |author2=[[Rustichello of Pisa]] |title=The Travels of Marco Polo – Volume 2 |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/12410 |publisher=Project Gutenberg |date=1 May 2004 |access-date=2 April 2011 |archive-date=24 September 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090924190642/http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/12410 |url-status=live }}
* {{cite book |title=Sur les routes de la soie |last=Weber |first=Olivier |author-link=Olivier Weber |others=Illustrated by [[Reza Deghati|Reza]] |date=2007 |publisher=Hoëbeke |isbn=978-2-84230-300-6 |location=Paris}}
* {{cite book |last=Vogel |first=Hans Ulrich |url=https://publikationen.uni-tuebingen.de/xmlui/handle/10900/151266 |title=Marco Polo Research: Past, Present, Future |last2=Theobald |first2=Ulrich |date=2024 |publisher=Tübingen Library Publishing |isbn=978-3-98944-007-4 |location=Tübingen, Germany |doi=10.15496/publikation-92606 |hdl=10900/151266}}
* {{cite book|title=Daughter of Xanadu|last=Yang|first=Dori Jones|author-link=Dori Jones Yang|publisher=Delacorte Press Books for Young Readers|year=2011|isbn=978-0-385-73923-8|url=https://archive.org/details/daughterofxanadu00yang}} (Young Adult novel)
* {{Cite EB1911|wstitle= Polo, Marco | volume=22 | first1= Henry |last1 = Yule |author1link= Henry Yule |first2=Charles Raymond|last2=Beazley|authorlink2=Raymond Beazley|pages= 7–11 |short=1}}
* {{Cite book |last=Weber |first=Olivier |author-link=Olivier Weber |title=Le grand festin de l'Orient |date=2004 |publisher=[[R. Laffont]] |isbn=978-2-221-09802-8 |location=Paris}}
{{Refend}}

== External links ==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20170428114043/http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0026847/ Marco Polo] on [[IMDb]]
* [http://www.innvenice.com/Marco-Polo.htm Marco Polo's house in Venice, near the church of San Giovanni Grisostomo] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210426044845/http://www.innvenice.com/Marco-Polo.htm |date=26 April 2021 }}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20080103144538/http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/data/2001/07/01/sights_n_sounds/media.2.2.html National Geographic Marco Polo: Journey from Venice to China]
* {{Gutenberg author |id=3613| name=Marco Polo}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Marco Polo}}
* {{Librivox author |id=6353}}
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnrShbZa-DA Marco Polo's Orient] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201113051541/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnrShbZa-DA&gl=US&hl=en |date=13 November 2020 }} Film on the material culture of areas along Polo's route using objects from the collections of the [[Glasgow Museums]]

{{Subject bar |auto=y |voy=On the trail of Marco Polo }}
{{Notable foreigners who visited China}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Polo, Marco}}
[[Category:Marco Polo| ]]
[[Category:1250s births]]
[[Category:1324 deaths]]
[[Category:13th-century explorers]]
[[Category:13th-century travel writers]]
[[Category:13th-century writers from the Republic of Venice]]
[[Category:14th-century writers from the Republic of Venice]]
[[Category:Explorers from the Republic of Venice]]
[[Category:Explorers of Asia]]
[[Category:Explorers of Central Asia]]
[[Category:Italian male writers]]
[[Category:Italian travel writers]]
[[Category:People of the War of Curzola]]
[[Category:Prisoners of war held by the Republic of Genoa]]
[[Category:Merchants from the Republic of Venice]]
[[Category:Expatriates from the Republic of Venice]]
[[Category:Italian expatriates in China]]
[[Category:Venetian Roman Catholics]]
[[Category:Writers from Venice]]